From the Einstein@Home Website:

Einstein@Home is a program that uses your computer's idle time to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors. Einstein@Home is a World Year of Physics 2005 project supported by the American Physical Society (APS) and by a number of international organizations.

According to Albert Einstein, we live in a universe full of gravitational waves. He suggested that the movements of heavy objects, such as black holes and dense stars, create waves that change space and time. We have a chance to detect these waves, but we need your help to do it!

Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the universe and set the course for physics research in the twentieth century. Now, 50 years after his death and 100 years after his Special Theory of Relativity was published, we have the chance to confirm one of Einstein’s most important predictions. But we need your help – read on to find out why you should get involved.

Technology has caught up with Einstein’s prediction. We now have detectors sensitive enough to see these waves. Two of them, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and GEO 600 in Germany, are working together to find gravitational waves from stars and black holes. These experiments require enormous amounts of data to be processed, so the LIGO group created Einstein@Home. More...