  The mystery of where and how Nature accelerates the cosmic rays is still
unresolved a century after their discovery. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been
proposed as one of the more plausible sources of extragalactic cosmic rays. A
positive observation of neutrinos in coincidence with a GRB would identify
these objects as sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays and provide
invaluable information about the processes occurring inside these phenomena.
Calculations show that a kilometer-scale neutrino telescope is necessary for
this task. The idea of such a detector is now becoming reality as IceCube at
the South Pole nears completion. The contribution reviews the status of the
construction and operation of IceCube and summarize the results from searches
for neutrinos from GRBs and similar phenomena with IceCube and its predecessor,
AMANDA. At the end, an outline of future plans and perspectives for IceCube is
given.
