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This week some of us got a cheering email from the World Community Grid: the first phase of the "Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together" project is complete. We're down from about three million candidate antiviral molecules to several thousand. Next up, lots of number crunching in phase two to refine that list down to the point that the University of Texas researchers can make and test the possibilities in the lab. So if you got an email in your inbox this week thanking you for your efforts, whether you contributed 2 hours or 200, take a moment to pat yourself on the back.

In fact, even if you're not on the World Community Grid, take this as an excuse to think about all those little things you do that add up to a major difference in the world. If you work for a nonprofit, remember what all those hours making calls or analyzing spreadsheets are working towards. If you volunteer, think about how those few hours you can spare add together with the efforts of your fellow volunteers to make a difference in your community. Do you vote in off years? Hey, do you recycle? It's probably been a long time since anyone gave you credit for that one, but those little things add up. Just like an average of 11 hours of computer time each from some regular desktops adds up to a project that would have taken 205 years on a supercomputer.