The most ancient black holes grew fat on cosmic fast food

In the first billion years after the Big Bang, the universe was a smaller, emptier place, without the huge galaxies that dominate today. But there were already supermassive black holes that had grown shockingly huge by gorging themselves on gas.
Generally speaking, the size of a black hole at the center of a galaxy will be proportional to the size of the galaxy as a whole. This makes sense — after all, a black hole needs a constant source of material to consume in order to grow larger, and a relatively tiny galaxy won't provide much food. That's why it was so shocking when the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) detected supermassive black holes that existed just 700 million years after the Big Bang, long before the age of giant galaxies.

Carnegie Mellon physicist Tiziana Di Matteo explains the conundrum that this discovery posed, in a press release:

"The Sloan Digital Sky Survey found supermassive black holes at less than 1 billion years. They were the same size as today's most massive black holes, which are 13.6 billion years old. It was a puzzle. Why do some black holes form so early when it takes the whole age of the universe for others to reach the same mass?"

Today's supermassive black holes are generally the result of galactic collisions, in which smaller black holes were merged together into one larger super-structure. But that explanation doesn't work for these ancient black holes, which predate the earliest galactic collisions and in fact formed at a time when these early, tiny galaxies were far more isolated than their counterparts are today.

The theoretical model and the observational data for these black holes simply didn't line up, which is why the Carnegie Mellon researchers decided to take a new approach. They created an incredibly complex computer simulation called MassiveBlack, which was tasked with recreating the first billion years after the Big Bang. Di Matteo describes the scope of this simulation:

"This simulation is truly gigantic. It's the largest in terms of the level of physics and the actual volume. We did that because we were interested in looking at rare things in the universe, like the first black holes. Because they are so rare, you need to search over a large volume of space."

You can see a part of the simulation in the image on the left, which shows the distribution of gas across the entire volume of space. The image then zooms in three times, each instance increasing the magnification by a factor of ten, to reveal the supermassive quasar on the right side, with huge streams of gas flowing into it - but more on that in a moment.

Of course, even the most colossal simulation can't make these black holes just magically appear — or at least that wouldn't be considered a particularly useful result. MassiveBlack still had to follow the known laws of physics, and that's why what happened next is so cool.

Fellow researcher Rupert Croft explains:

"We didn't put anything crazy in. There's no magic physics, no extra stuff. It's the same physics that forms galaxies in simulations of the later universe," said Croft. "But magically, these early quasars, just as had been observed, appear. We didn't know they were going to show up. It was amazing to measure their masses and go 'Wow! These are the exact right size and show up exactly at the right point in time.' It's a success story for the modern theory of cosmology."

So just how did these ancient black holes get so massive? It's all about the movement of gas. In today's galaxies, cold gas flows towards the central black hole, but en route it slams into other gas. This temporarily heats up and slows down the gas, a process known as shock heating, which slows the rate of black hole growth.

But these ancient black holes weren't surrounded by massive, fully formed galaxies, and so the gas was able to flow directly along filaments, which are the vast thread-like structures that link together different parts of the cosmos. With nothing to slow the gas down, the black holes were able to eat this constant diet of cold, fast food, growing exponentially faster than black holes do today. This new discovery may also help us understand better the formation of the first galaxies, which likely sprang up around these engorged black holes.

Via the Astrophysical Journal Supplemental Series. Top image by NASA/JPL. Simulation image courtesy of Yu Feng.

Intel Shows Off Its Smart Phone and Tablet for 2012

Prototype devices show Intel chips running devices that could challenge the iPhone and iPad early next year.

Intel inside: This “reference design” running Google’s Android operating system is meant to help persuade manufacturers to build their handsets around Intel’s new mobile chips.
Intel

The era of the personal computer dawned thanks in no small part to the chip maker Intel. But the company has been only a spectator to the rise of smart phones and tablets in recent years. These mobile devices use chips based on designs licensed by the U.K. company ARM, which deliver the power efficiency the powerful, compact gadgets require.

Intel is about to fight back.

Last week, Technology Review tried out prototype smart phones and tablets equipped with Intel's latest mobile chip, dubbed Medfield, and running the Android mobile operating system created by Google. "We expect products based on these to be announced in the first half of 2012," says Stephen Smith, vice president of Intel's architecture group.

Known as "reference designs," the devices are sent out to inspire and instruct manufacturers interested in building products around Intel's latest technology. "They can use as much or as little of the reference design as they like," says Smith, who hinted that the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January could bring news of gadgets in which Intel's chips will appear.

Intel's Medfield is the latest in its "Atom" line of mobile chips. So far none of them have seriously threatened the dominance of ARM-based chips in mobile devices, in part because they are more power-hungry. However, the new chip represents a significant technological step toward lower power consumption.

Previous Atom designs spread the work of a processor across two or three chips, a relatively power-intensive scheme that originated many years ago in Intel's PC chips. But now Intel has finally combined the core functions of its processor designs into one chunk of silicon. "This is our first offering that's truly a single chip," says Smith. The all-in-one design, known as a system on-a-chip, is a standard feature of the ARM chips so dominant in smart phones today.

The phone prototype seen by Technology Review was similar in dimensions to the iPhone 4 but noticeably lighter, probably because the case was made with more plastic and less glass and metal. It was running the version of Google's operating system shipping with most Android phones today, known as Gingerbread; a newer version, Ice Cream Sandwich, was released by Google only about a month ago.

The phone was powerful and pleasing to use, on a par with the latest iPhone and Android handsets. It could play Blu-Ray-quality video and stream it to a TV if desired; Web browsing was smooth and fast. Smith says Intel has built circuits into the Medfield chip specifically to speed up Android apps and Web browsing.

BY TOM SIMONITE

British Telecommunications the latest major company to sue Google over patents

By Nilay Patel | The Verge,

British Telecommunications is the latest major company to sue Google over patents — it filed a lawsuit in Delaware last week alleging that nearly every Google product and service infringes at least one of six patents, including Google Search, Android, AdSense, Gmail, Google+, Google Docs, Google Music, and Google Maps. The patents themselves are all somewhat older, with some dating back to 1998, and they're all quite broad — for example, #6,397,040 reads on nearly any service that uses your location to tailor a list of options or sources. That makes the case much, much bigger than any of the Android lawsuits we've seen previously, which, apart from the Oracle case, have almost all been directed at OEMs like Samsung and HTC; BT is going right after what it calls "ongoing and pervasive" patent infringement in Google's core web products and services.

Given the scope of the patents and the wide swath of Google's core services the lawsuit covers, it's almost certain that BT and Google tried and failed to reach any sort of licensing agreement before BT gave up and filed this lawsuit — we'll see if Google decides to fight this one out or head back to the negotiating table.

This article originally appeared on theverge.com as BT says almost all Google products and services infringe its patents, files lawsuit .

A Solar Trade War Could Put Us All in the Dark

Solar technology is the result of decades of global competition and collaboration—a trade war would undermine its future.

The brewing solar trade war between the United States and China sullies what should be a triumphant moment in the global photovoltaic (PV) industry: the arrival of affordable solar electricity.

After decades of global competition and collaboration, many solar markets around the world have reached grid parity—the point at which generating solar electricity, without subsidies, costs less than the electricity purchased from the grid. In other words, solar technology is ready to be a major contributor to solving our planet's energy and environmental crisis.

However, trade protectionism threatens to inhibit the solar industry at the very time when it is breaking through to a new level of global interdependence, collaboration, and maturity.

On October 18, the U.S. government was asked to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese solar cells and modules, based on the argument that China-based producers have been heavily subsidized and are selling solar products at unfairly low prices. Perhaps not surprisingly, some Chinese companies have now asked the Chinese government to impose tariffs on imports of American solar products, arguing that U.S.-based producers have been heavily subsidized, too. And just like that, the production of affordable and competitive solar products has become a political liability in the world's two largest producers and consumers of energy.

The success of the entire solar industry hinges on the success of not one country or one company, but global competition and collaboration, which drives efficiency improvements and cost reductions worldwide. If trade barriers are imposed in the U.S., China, or Germany, it could cause a significant increase in the price of solar products and therefore solar electricity, globally. That could cause a further erosion of political support for the solar industry at a critical juncture.

Altogether, a solar trade war could undermine decades of international innovation and stall the global adoption of advanced solar technology.

Gordon Brinsen, president of the U.S. branch of Solar World, one company seeking the tariff imposition, argued that "Solar technology was invented here and we intend to keep it here." I strongly disagree. Just as the sun is a shared global resource, the history of solar technology, as well as solar industry development, has been equally global. And that's how it should remain.

BY MARTIN GREEN

Notebook Computer Memory - Upgrading Your Laptop

With the proliferation of laptop computers, choosing to upgrade or implement notebook computer memory is not as straight forward as it may seem at first.

There is a variety of different types of memory, and it is important that you choose memory that is compatible with your notebook computer. Memory is also a little delicate, so you need to be very careful when handling it.

Adding Computer Memory - Some Tips

You should ensure that the Notebook is turned of and disconnected from any exterior power supply. No lights should be visible, and if they are, stop and double check for any live power sources.

Notebook computers are a little different to desktop PC's in that there is no need to take them apart in order to add memory. Access to the memory slots is via a panel located (usually) in the bottom of the laptop. Once you have found this panel, it should be a small matter of using a screwdriver to open up the panel and view the existing memory. In fact, you can do this to check the exact type of memory that your Notebook currently uses, because it is usually shown on the front of the memory strips and should be visible when you open up the memory panel.

The memory strips are usually locked in with small clips on the ends of the strips. To remove existing memory, simply flip the clips and then pull the memory strips gently from their holding place. If you are simply adding memory of course, and there is space available, just add the new memory, gently pushing it in to ensure it is fully seated in the slots, and then close the clips to hold the new memory in place.

Once you have replaced or added your Notebook computer memory, it is simply a case of replacing the access panel, and then screwing the panel back in place.

Finally, power up the Notebook, and ensure that the memory has been read by the Notebook. When the PC starts up, it should count the memory and tell you how much it thinks it has access to.

If any problems occur, repeat the whole procedure, checking very carefully that the memory is properly seated in the notebook.

Adobe Flash Player 11.1 brings Ice Cream Sandwich support

Adobe Flash Player 11.1 brings Ice Cream Sandwich support (via The Inquirer)

Cosmic Black Hole Collision is Coming

Astronomers are getting excited about the prospect of witnessing a spectacular years-long impact as an interstellar dust cloud in the center of the Milky Way drifts into the orbit of a super-massive black hole.

According to this week’s Science, Sagittarius A*, weighing in at 4 million times the mass of the Sun, lies 27,000 light years from Earth, and virtually every star in the galaxy –including our own–revolves around it.

The cloud, detected by Stefan Gillessen and his team from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, appears to be heading right for the collapsed star.

According to their calculations, its center of mass will reach Sagittarius A* in the summer of 2013. Gillessen and his team made their observations at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, targeting the Milky Way’s central region in infrared, cutting through the gas and dust between Earth and the black hole.

The astronomers detected the object at a wavelength of 3.76 microns but not at 2.16 microns. This indicates it is a cloud of gas and dust rather than a star, they say, because a star is so hot that it should be brighter at the shorter wavelength.

The cloud is about three times as massive as Earth, emits five times as much energy as the sun, and spans 250 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. Its temperature is about 550 kelvin—somewhat cooler than the surface of Venus. Sagittarius A*’s immense gravity is accelerating the cloud dramatically: in 2004, the cloud was hurtling toward the black hole at 1200 kilometers per second; by 2011, the speed had nearly doubled, reaching 2350 kilometers per second. At that velocity, an airplane could circle the Earth in 17 seconds.

According to Gillessen, Sagittarius A* is already starting to destroy the dust cloud. “It became really exciting when we noticed in the 2011 data that the cloud is starting to be stretched like spaghetti,” he told Science correspondent Ken Croswell. “So right in front of our eyes, we can see the black hole is destroying the cloud. The material will rain down into the black hole and release a tremendous amount of energy.”

Huge bursts of X-rays are what they expect to see as the cloud is progressively consumed over the next decade.

Now that’s a time-lapse video that would be worth the wait.

John Farrell, Contributor
Covering science and technology.