Technology Insight

They are the zestiest bits of matter in the universe. They can zing through space for millions of years at essentially the speed of light and with 100 million times the energy produced by the biggest particle accelerators on the earth, before crashing occasionally into Earth’s atmosphere and dying in a spray of microscopic fluff.

Since these ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, as they are known, were first glimpsed in 1963, physicists and astronomers have scratched their heads wondering where they came from and what gargantuan process could produce such energies — wondering, even, if they were real.

Now 370 scientists and engineers from 17 countries in a group known as the Pierre Auger Collaboration say they finally have evidence of a fitting answer: supermassive black holes that rumble at the hearts of many galaxies, crushing stars and gas out of existence and spewing jets of radiation and subatomic particles into intergalactic space.

Using a new array of cosmic ray detectors known as the Pierre Auger Observatory, which is spread over an area the size of Rhode Island near Malargüe, in the pampas of Argentina, the scientists traced some of the highest-energy cosmic rays back to the vicinities of nearby galaxies bubbling with black hole fireworks, so-called active galaxies.

The astronauts incorrectly did not employ alcohol during the time before the flight immediate, FOX Tuesday learned by news.  “the review of safety of NASA did not find any obviousness of the abuse alcohol or the abuse in, before the immediate flight of period ” according to a press release of NASA about the internal civils servant of review.NASA launched a review after signals that an astronaut flew on a Russian spaceship after the drinking of alcohol. A panel of the experts independent in health of astronaut indicated civils servant of NASA is not listened to surgeons of flight and other astronauts on allegations about use of alcohol. Management did not neglect the surgeon of flight or the concerns for crewmember are used as team-member approximately the weakening of alcohol and the flight, according to the release of NASA about the griffon of Michael of administrator of review.NASA will hold a press conference Wednesday to discuss the review.NASA of the allegations reviewed by Comité of review of system of health of astronaut of S about the astronauts of use, interviewing alcohol and any other personnel.

With Monday�s news that it will bundle Linux on laptops, Lenovo becomes the second major PC maker to offer the open-source operating system on consumer PCs. But though the move is a boost for the OS, analysts say it�ll be years before desktop Linux can seriously threaten proprietary systems like Windows.

�It�s still very early stages,� 451 Group analyst Raven Zachary said when asked about the No. 3 PC maker�s decision to sell its ThinkPad notebooks preloaded with Novell�s SUSE version of Linux. �In terms of elegance and aesthetics, Microsoft and Apple are many years ahead of Linux.�

For the scrappy OS to truly trespass on territory long held by Windows and the Mac OS, commercial Linux distributors such as Novell, Ubuntu, and Red Hat would have to place engineers and designers on their payroll, Mr. Zachary suggested.

�Apple and Microsoft have the advantage of having usability engineers and designers on staff and working on a single initiative,� he said.

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