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I swapped my favorite Linux desktop for System76's COSMIC alpha - and I have zero regrets

Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways System76's COSMIC desktop will soon be in beta. Even as an alpha release, COSMIC is impressive. COSMIC is as fast as any Linux desktop I've experienced. Alpha releases aren't to be used for any reason other than testing. Right? That's the common opinion, and yet here I am, working on System76's COSMIC desktop as if it's in stable status. It's not... and it shows. Yes, I

A Super-Energetic Neutrino That Reached Earth in 2023 Has Been Confirmed to Be Real. But Where Did It Come From?

In February 2023, a cosmic particle detector housed deep in the Mediterranean Sea recorded the arrival of a neutrino with approximately 20 to 30 times more energy than any other neutrino documented previously. Labelled KM3-230213A, the particle had a calculated energy of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV), far greater than the 10 PeV of the previously most energetic neutrino. The finding generated a lot of excitement among physicists, but raised also many questions. Neutrinos are the most abundant par

The Mysterious Origins of the Most Energetic Neutrino Ever Detected

In February 2023, a cosmic particle detector housed deep in the Mediterranean Sea recorded the arrival of a neutrino with approximately 20 to 30 times more energy than any other neutrino documented previously. Labelled KM3-230213A, the particle had a calculated energy of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV), far greater than the 10 PeV of the previously most energetic neutrino. The finding generated a lot of excitement among physicists, but raised also many questions. Neutrinos are the most abundant par

KosmicKrisp a Vulkan on Metal Mesa 3D Graphics Driver

At LunarG, our mission is to empower developers with robust, high-performance graphics solutions. We’re thrilled to announce KosmicKrisp, LunarG’s new Vulkan driver for Apple hardware, built within the Mesa 3D graphics framework. By focusing on Apple Silicon and leveraging Mesa’s Vulkan driver framework and robust tools, KosmicKrisp simplifies development and sets the stage for full Vulkan conformance at a pace that can keep up with the Vulkan API as it evolves. It is already close to Vulkan 1.

Astronomers in Awe of Terrifying "Eye of Sauron" That's Pointed Straight at Earth

A bright galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole that spews out cosmic radiation is pointing straight at us. Thankfully, the object, unimaginatively dubbed "PKS 1424+240," is located roughly 7.4 billion light-years away and likely won't pose much of a danger. But that hasn't stopped a group of excited astronomers from renaming it: the "Eye of Sauron," the symbol adopted by the Dark Lord in JRR Tolkien's epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. A new image of the object was recently unveiled,

Heaviest Black Hole Ever Found Pushes Limit of What’s Cosmologically Possible

The largest black hole ever detected is 36 billion times the mass of our Sun. It exists near the upper limit predicted by our cosmological models, leaving astronomers with burning questions surrounding the relationship between black holes and their galaxy hosts. In a paper published August 7 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers announced the discovery of a black hole inside a supermassive galaxy 5 billion light-years from Earth, dubbed the Cosmic Horseshoe. The newl

Humans Counted 8,600 Earthquakes in Yellowstone. AI Says We’re Not Even Close

Before the advent of artificial intelligence, experts often detected earthquakes by analyzing seismic data by hand. Unsurprisingly, this approach takes a long time, is cost-intensive, and usually identifies fewer earthquakes. Machine learning has now changed virtually everything. Using artificial intelligence, researchers have retroactively identified and assigned magnitudes to ten times as many seismic events in historical earthquake data from the Yellowstone caldera from 2008 to 2022 as had b

Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope

Go behind the scenes with the dedicated NASA team and its partners to uncover the untold story of the James Webb Space Telescope. “Cosmic Dawn” unveils the immense challenges, groundbreaking innovations, and extraordinary efforts behind humanity’s most powerful eye on our universe, from its complex development to its nail-biting deployment a million miles away.

Myanmar’s Devastating Earthquake in March Split the Earth at ‘Supershear Velocity’

On March 28, Myanmar was rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed over 5,000 lives and caused damage even in neighboring countries. In a study published July 10 in The Seismic Record, seismologists confirmed previous research indicating that the southern part of the large earthquake’s rupture, or fracture, took place at astounding speeds of up to between 3.1 and 3.7 miles per second (5 to 6 kilometers per second)—at supershear velocity. This likely played a role in the earthquake’s dev

Android Phones Can Detect Earthquakes Before the Ground Starts Shaking

Since their first implementation in Mexico and Japan, earthquake early-warning (EEW) systems have provided critical advance notice of imminent earthquakes to countless people. Many seismic countries, however, still don’t have the infrastructure necessary to sustain such crucial networks, leaving their populations vulnerable to devastating earthquakes. Researchers in the U.S. and Germany have tested a global earthquake detection and alert system that makes use of a device many people already own

Scientists Working to Decode Signal From Earliest Years of Universe

As mysterious as the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe is the brief but tumultuous period that immediately followed it. How did the cosmos transform from a uniform sea of darkness into a chaotic swirl brimming with radiant stars? What were these first stars like, and how were they born? So far, we have very strong suspicions, but no hard answers. One reason is that the light from this period, called the cosmic dawn, is extremely faint, making it nearly impossible to infer the traits of t

Taiwan joins chip war escalation, blocks exports to Huawei and SMIC

What just happened? Taiwan has imposed sweeping new export controls on two of China's most critical technology firms, Huawei Technologies and SMIC, thereby escalating a high-stakes battle over the future of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence. The move, announced by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs and approved by the International Trade Administration, places both companies on the strategic high-tech commodities entity list, a roster that includes organizations such as the

Taiwan blacklists China's Huawei and SMIC, further aligning with U.S. trade policy

The U.S. has placed major chip export restrictions on Huawei and Chinese firms over the past few years. This has cut off companies' access to critical semiconductors. Taiwan has added China's Huawei and SMIC to its trade blacklist in a move that further aligns it with U.S. trade policy and comes amid growing tensions with Beijing. The two leading Chinese chip firms have been put on Taiwan's "Strategic High-Tech Commodities Entity List," along with many of their international subsidiaries. Tai

Taiwan places export controls on Huawei and SMIC

In Brief Chinese companies Huawei and SMIC may have a difficult time accessing resources needed to build AI chips, due to Taiwanese export controls. Bloomberg reports that Taiwan’s International Trade Administration placed the two companies and their subsidiaries on an updated list of entities designated as strategic high-tech commodities. That means Taiwanese businesses will need government approval before they can ship anything to either company. As a result, Huawei and SMIC will lose acces