Slooh will broadcast live images of the comet throughout the week -- culminating in a special edition of "David Levy's Sky" at 9:00PM EDT Monday, October 9. "I look forward to seeing the comet live thorough the Slooh Telescopes and sharing my story of discovery with its global membership," said Levy.

"Slooh.com allows astronomy to be enjoyed as a true international sport." The soon to be launched "Slooh Discovery Project" will empower everyday people to make their own amazing astronomical discoveries by expanding Slooh's telescope network to new continents, and coordinating with distinguished comet and supernova hunters worldwide.

These ripples in the microwave radiation, they said, were the primordial framework on which the galaxies, stars and other stuff of the universe took shape. It explained why the universe is lumpy and not a smooth sheet of matter and energy.

"The discovery changed everything," said Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Case Western University in Ohio.

"It produced a revolution in what we know about the universe -- we know it is expanding, we know it is flat ... and we can measure that to an incredible accuracy," Krauss said in a telephone interview.

"Cosmology now is a precision science."

Until then, theoretical physicists had cobbled together small pieces of evidence that the universe and everything in it had appeared suddenly about 15 billion years ago from an infinitesimally small point in a vacuum of nothingness.

When the 40-member research team announced some of their findings to a meeting of physicists in 1992, an "audible gasp was heard from the audience," according to the American Institute of Physics.

Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist who explained theories about how the universe was formed in his popular book "A Brief History of Time," was one of most excited. "It is the discovery of the century, if not of all time," Hawking said in a statement at the time.

FILLING IN THE BLANKS

"I don't think he was completely out of control," Krauss said. People had known what to look for. "The picture, however, had been blank up to then," he said.

"Then it was clear -- it wasn't a vague idea. It was clear the lumps were there."

These fluctuations were faint variations in temperature, and scientists have since followed up on those measurements to try to understand, for instance, dark matter -- mass that no one has been able to see or measure but which must exist because of the amount of gravity measured in the universe.

Some teams have come up with new theories of dark energy -- a mysterious force that may be accelerating the expansion of the universe.

While the implications may far outlast humanity -- the end of the universe may be coming in a few more billion years -- Smoot has been clear on the need for the work.

"It is extremely important for human beings to know their origins and their place in the world," Smoot said in a statement.

Krauss said the prize supports his own arguments -- made to
NASA and the U.S. Congress -- that funding should go to similar experiments.

President Bush has urged NASA to concentrate on getting people to the moon and Mars.

"New experiments on the cosmic microwave background, new experiments to probe dark energy, to look for habitable planets -- all these have been delayed and/or canceled because we are sending people back to the moon," Krauss said.

The computer-based technique developed by the government's Forensic Science Service (FSS), allows the profiling of small, poor quality and mixed DNA samples from crime scenes, according to the report.

The new software, called DNA boost, could help scientists identify 40 percent more samples than presently possible - and ultimately increase crime detection rates by up to 15 percent.

"The software allows us to carry out a much more sophisticated interpretation process," Paul Hackett, DNA manager at the FSS in Birmingham, UK, was quoted as saying.

In conjunction with a form of supersensitive DNA testing also developed by the FSS, the technique could double the number of unsolved "cold cases" that can be cracked, the report said.

The FSS runs the world's first and largest national DNA database, handling over 10,000 samples of DNA from crime scenes and 50,000 from individuals every month.

By 3 a.m. Friday, the evacuation area stretched from N.C. Highway 55 to Hunter Road, Hunter Road to Old Raleigh Road, and U.S. Highway 64 to Highway 55.

Mayor Keith Weatherly said changing weather conditions could force additional evacuations later Friday morning.

U.S. Highway 1 and U.S. 64 were expected to remain open for the morning commute, but Radford said traffic would be rerouted off N.C. 55.

The town's central business district, including Town Hall, will be closed Friday, Radford said. Anyone in the area without a legitimate reason would be arrested, he said.

Many local schools also will be closed Friday, officials said, and no school buses would be running in Apex. Parents of students at Salem Elementary School and Salem Middle School, would have to arrange other transportation, officials said.

Radford warned residents wandering the streets late Thursday and early Friday to get inside, saying that walking in the smoke would endanger people's lives.

"There are all grades of contaminated materials in this smoke and the fire," he said. "If you see this smoke, get away from it."

Ten law enforcement officers and one firefighter were treated for respiratory distress, Radford said.

Also, fewer than a dozen Apex residents went to the Rex Hospital emergency room in Raleigh, complaining of respiratory difficulties, officials said. The affected law enforcement officers were transported to WakeMed Raleigh.

WakeMed Cary Hospital officials said that at 10 people had visited their emergency room with illnesses related to the fire, including the affected firefighter. Also, 90 residents of Rex Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center of Apex were brought to the hospital as a precautionary measure.

A decontamination chamber was set up outside the hospital in case firefighters, residents or others came in contact with hazardous materials.

Prolonged direct inhalation of chlorine gas could cause sickness or even death, authorities said. Chest pain, vomiting, and difficulty breathing are among the symptoms that might be experienced.

Firefighters were unable to approach the blaze for hours after it ignited because of the explosions and hazardous chemicals. Crews started staging for various scenarios and planned to move into the area around daybreak, Radford said.

"We want to get in there as quickly as we can, but we're not going to endanger anyone," Radford said. "Rather than put water or foam on the fire, it's better to let the fire burn itself out so we don't create a large hazardous area on the ground."

Officials don't have any idea how long the fire might burn, he said.

Weatherly said the fire had spread to a nearby petroleum farm and had ignited four storage tanks. But officials were unsure if the fire had spread beyond that, he said.

A plane tried to fly over the plant early Friday morning to assess the situation but had to return to the airport because of adverse weather.

Authorities evacuated about 100 residences in the Briarcliff area shortly after the fire began, and several streets also were blocked off. Shifting winds moved the smoke in different directions throughout the night, forcing further evacuations.

Radford said the eastern half of Apex had been evacuated by midnight, including residents in the Haddon Hall, Surrey Meadows, Knollwood, Shepherd's Vineyard and Weatherford Green subdivisions.

"It was one of the most frightening moments I've ever had," one woman said of hearing the explosions and receiving the evacuation order.

Weatherly declared a state of emergency in Apex at about 12:30 a.m. Friday, and Wake County declared a state of emergency about two hours later for unincorporated areas around Apex.

The declarations will make it easier for the town to apply for federal emergency aid, if needed, officials said.

Authorities had to move their command post three times to get downwind of the explosions and gas plume. The town's 911 center was relocated from the police department downtown to Apex Elementary School.

Flights into and leaving Raleigh-Durham International Airport were being rerouted to at least 5 miles from downtown Apex to avoid the fire and explosions, officials said.

The Raleigh Fire Department Hazardous Response Team arrived at the scene shortly after 10:30 p.m. to aid Apex authorities. Over 300 firefighters from Raleigh, Cary, Holly Springs and other jurisdictions also assisted in the effort.

The state Air Toxics Analytical Support Team was brought to the area early Friday to help monitor the air quality following the chlorine gas leak and fire and develop a plan of action.

Firefighters spent much of the night making sure they had the proper equipment to handle various scenarios. Radford said authorities would rely on air quality experts to determine when it was safe to go back into the area around the EQ plant.

All residents within a one-mile radius of Investment Blvd and Sheffelein Road were evacuated to Olive Chapel Elementary School on Olive Chapel Road.

Apex residents who weren't evacuated were asked to turn off their air conditioners and stay indoors with doors and windows closed until further notice.

Around 250 residents had taken refuge at Olive Chapel Elementary by 4:30 a.m. Authorities also opened a second shelter at Turner Creek Elementary School. Officials are also asking residents to seek temporary residence at hotels elsewhere in Wake County or with relatives if shelters are full.

Local Red Cross volunteers arrived at the shelters early Friday to provide food, water, blankets, cots and other items to evacuees.

"Schools are community centers, and we're here to serve the community," Olive Chapel Elementary Principal Melissa Burns said.

All school activities at Apex Elementary, Apex Middle, Apex High, Baucom Elementary, Lufkin Road Middle, Olive Chapel Elementary and Turner Creek Elementary schools have been cancelled Friday, Wake County Schools officials said. St. Mary Magdalene School also canceled classes.

School district officials said they are closely monitoring the situation and would update the district Web site later Friday morning with information about the fire's impact on other area schools.

EQ officials were on their way to the plant late Thursday, Radford said.

The Wayne, Mich.-based company is a licensed hazardous-waste facility that serves businesses. It offers services to a variety of institutions that have hazardous chemicals and other materials that must be disposed of according to state and federal regulations. The facility is federally licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Cregg Johnson, a truck driver who hauls materials to and from EQ, said he was sleeping in his tractor-trailer cab outside the plant Thursday night when a firefighter pulled him out to evacuate as part of the building was engulfed in flames.

"As we were headed off, barrels started blowing, and it just sounded like thunder," Johnson said. "I saw black smoke in the air and it was going south, and I told the firefighters I was heading north."

He said he had to leave his tractor-trailer full of flammable household chemicals, including paints and paint thinner, parked outside the plant.

EQ's Web site states that the company serves "R&D facilities, educational institutions, manufacturing companies, government agencies, hospital and medical facilities."

State environmental officials fined EQ $32,000 in March for failing to minimize the possibility of a release of hazardous-waste materials or implement a contingency plan for a possible release.

Town officials were unaware of the fine and would be discussing the matter with state officials, Weatherly said.

"It certainly would have been prudent for us to have been aware," he said.

In August 2005, a large explosion and fire rocked an EQ plant near Detroit. More than 1,000 nearby residents were evacuated.

The warrants were served at a Natural Selection Foods LLC plant in San Juan Bautista and at Growers Express in Salinas, both in central California.

The searches were the first sign that authorities were looking at potential criminal charges in last month's outbreak from tainted spinach, said the report.

"We are investigating allegations that certain spinach growers and distributors may not have taken all necessary or appropriate steps to ensure that their spinach was safe before it was placed into interstate commerce," U.S. Atty. Kevin V. Ryan said in a statement.

He said there was no indication that the spinach was deliberately contaminated.

The search "does indicate that it was a very significant outbreak, and they are looking at all their options," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"They're looking for the possibility of criminal negligence," she said.

A separate federal and state investigation traced bags of spinach that tested positive for the strain of E. coli responsible for the outbreak- 0157:H7 - to Natural Selection and is continuing to search for the source of the deadly bacteria at the processing plant and at nine farms that supplied it with spinach.

"The documents requested .. included those that have been previously provided to both the FDA and the California Department of Health Services in the course of the investigation, as well as additional information that investigators believe will be helpful to their investigation," Charles Sweat, Natural Selection's chief operating officer, said in a statement Wednesday. "We .. welcome all efforts to trace this problem back to its source."

Growers Express, which grows and packs produce and operates a cooling facility, declined to comment.

Federal health officials on Friday lifted a warning against eating fresh spinach other than products that had already been recalled by Natural Selection.