SETI@home
I'm approaching 1000 data units. (ook ook) 19000 hours of otherwise idle CPU time has gone to search for the little green men. (I've got two computers on it, which is why that comes out to more than the elapsed time of the project.)
Who knows how empty the sky is
In the place of a fallen tower.
Who knows how quiet it is in the home
Where a son has not returned.
-- Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)