They have been used to model climate change, forecast economic trends, and simulate the intricate complexities folding proteins. Now IBM has something new in store for high-performance computers: heating buildings. Keeping cool: A novel on-chip water-cooling system developed by IBM could make it efficient for data centers to provide waste heat for buildings. Credit: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Thanks to a novel on-chip water-cooling system developed by the company, the thermal energy from a cluster of computer processors can be efficiently recycled to provide hot water for an office, says Bruno Michel, manager of advanced thermal packaging at IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratory, in Switzerland. The goal, he says, is to improve the energy efficiency of large computing clusters and reduce their environmental impact. (via Technology Review: Computer Clusters That Heat Houses)