Foster City (CA) - Almost 40,000 PS3 owners have connected to Stanford University’s Folding@Home project, boosted by the launch of the console in Europe and other areas of the globe.

Alongside the European launch on March 23, the latest PS3 update was released last Thursday, allowing users to remotely share the Cell processor’s power with the ambitious medical research project. Within the first day, about 15,000 users had signed up, and by the end of the weekend that number mushroomed to over 30,000.

Folding@Home is a global initiative headed by Stanford’s medical researchers to find out more information about diseases like Parkinsn’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. PS3 users can access Folding@Home from the console’s menu, which lets researchers tap into the processing power when the console is idle.