We've suffered our fair share of broken hearts at the hands of the Red Ring of Death -- now, the Xbox 360 is being used to mend our ailing blood-pumpers. A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England recently did some sweet console modification to allow his 360 to calculate heart rhythms using a complex algorithm. Microsoft's console is capable of performing these calculations five times faster (and 10 times cheaper) than a lab computer, and has the added benefit of letting its users play Madden in between bursts of scientific study.

To sum up, the 360 is now being used to cure heart disease, and the PS3 is being used to cure cancer. Ball's in your court, Nintendo.

Read more at Joystiq