Abstract: Thread-based methods and systems for using the idle processing power of one or more networked computers include at least one server and at least one client. The server stores data and job descriptions relating to a complex scientific problem and provides the job descriptions and portions of the data to clients in response to requests from the clients. Each of the clients starts a first idle thread for pulling job descriptions from the server. Each client also starts a second idle thread for requesting data from the server and for performing the job specified in the job description. The first and second idle threads are automatically scheduled for execution by the operating system.