Yet more proof is it were needed about how excellent the internet is for science and education. Sure for many of us making our own glowsticks is going to be expensive and impractical in our tiny (shedless) appartments but hey; what does that beginner’s guide to electronics and chemistry sitting on our shelves say about us if not… “here lives a dreamer. One day he will own a shed.”

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via @timwhitlock

The idea was spawned from a conversation on the UK Pirate Party IRC channel and then set in motion just a few days ago at midnight on the 1st July. The record breaking attempt is not just a bit of fun however but is also an excellent way of demonstrating the uniques benefits the bit torrent system has when it comes to distributing data compared to other methods. Many major publishers have taken to using Bit Torrent for distribution of large files including Channel4 and Star Trek Online but to name a couple yet the technology still suffers from a poor image in the public eye. Hopefully this , if successful will be another small step towards changing that.

It’s also going to be interesting to see how “big” a torrent can actually be. As far as we know a maximum size for torrents has never been established so asides from publicity participants may actually be helping expand the boundaries of science which is always a good thing in our books.

The current record, according to freakbits, “was set by an EZTV torrent and stands at around 124,000″ so this current attempt (sitting at well under 50 seeds and declining) has a very, very, very long way to go. You can find the torrent and help the effort at both the piratebay and EZTV or just head over to the official page to find out more. If you’ve got a client running head over and join in, within a few clicks you’ll be helping to make internet history.

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Edit: currently the torrent appears to have 0 seeds and 0 leechers so we aren’t sure what’s going on there – can anyone update us?

Edit 2: Tracker’s offline apparently. Hopefully it’ll be up again soon.

Yes we know this is a bit dated but it’s still excellent. Science IS interesting (and the internet IS made of cats!).

We always knew it but this totally confirms without a doubt that science is awesome!

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