Number 229 (Story #2), June 7, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein COSMIC RAYS AND GAMMA RAY BURSTS MIGHT BE RELATED. Eli Waxman of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study suggests that the same physical mechanism (as yet unknown) which can produce cosmic ray particles with energies above 10**20 eV (several such cosmic ray showers have been recorded in recent years) might also be producing the mysterious gamma-ray bursts observed from orbiting detectors. Although some cosmic rays may come from our galaxy, the highest energy cosmic rays are thought to be extra-galactic. Many (but not all) astronomers believe gamma bursts also originate outside our galaxy. In Waxman's scenario the gamma bursts are produced by internal shocks in ultra-relativistic winds, which also accelerate the 10**20-eV protons we later observe as cosmic rays. The amount of energy injected into the universe as gammas and as high energy cosmic rays should be comparable. (Eli Waxman, 17 July 95, Phys. Rev. Lett.)