The Large Hadron Collider team is harnessing spare computing power from civilian laptops and computers to bolster the search for new physics and fundamental particles. LHC@home 2.0, a revamp of the LHC@home platform, allows volunteers to simulate the proton-beam collisions in the LHC’s hulking underground detectors.

Your virtual atom smasher will support CERN’s Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid, a massive computing infrastructure that manages the 15 million gigabytes of data banged out every year along the Franco-Swiss border, and then disseminates pertinent information to scientists across the globe. (Enlisting is simple: Install VirtualBox, an open-source virtualization tool, then BOINC, a volunteer computing app, and then sync your machine to the project, and then BOOM! Homebrew physics.) “The LHC@home project will complement this network,” the BBC reports, “by splitting up the gargantuan task of simulating the collisions, feeding those computer simulations back to the scientists for comparison.”

Scientists are interested in any discrepancy between simulation and data – they’re looking out for any point of disagreement between existing theories and the cold, hard, physical Universe, in other words. “Ultimately,” the LHC@home 2.0 site says, “such a disagreement could lead us to the discovery of new phenomena, which may be associated with new fundamental principles of nature.”

This is a pretty huge bump to the crowd-sourced science movement, whereby institutions and researchers entice curious amateurs to get in on the action. Last year, you’ll remember, the now resurrected SETI project called on the masses to help find E.T.

So, where are CERN’s colorful propaganda posters? No, really. HIGGS FOR VICTORY! LHC – YOUR HELP MATTERS! THE UNIVERSE – IT’S ALL OUR CONCERN! The possibilities are endless.

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