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Batteries are vital for The Pentagon’s drone roll-out– www.army-technology.com
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As the US military looks to expand its drone capabilities, another important consideration is the batteries that will power these devices. Bruce Parkinson, Applications Engineering and Inside Sales Manager at Ultralife Corporation, explores how modern-day drone manufacturers now have more choice when selecting a power solution.

Single-use drones are typically treated as expendable and may not return from their first mission; therefore, they do not require a rechargeable battery. In the 1940s, when early versions of single-use drones were first developed, non-rechargeable battery technology was still in its infancy and alkaline chemistry had just been invented.

Alkaline batteries have a lower energy density compared to modern lithium alternatives, and, in single-use drones, the energy required for power-intensive systems like guidance, navigation and communications must be compact and efficient, so low energy density was a significant disadvantage. Alkaline batteries also did not perform as well in extreme temperatures, which was problematic for drones that operated in hot or cold climates or at high altitudes.

Today’s lithium-based non-rechargeable batteries not only address these issues, they can even power the propulsion systems of single-use drones, but this is still very rare. As in the 1940s, non-rechargeable batteries are mainly used to power radio control systems and flight stabilizers, but modern drones also feature additional sensors that require more power.

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow him to fire Lisa Cook from Fed Board of Governors– www.cbsnews.com
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Washington — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow President Trump to remove Lisa Cook from her position on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors while a legal challenge to her firing moves forward.

In its request for emergency relief from the high court, the Justice Department said that the justices should freeze a lower court decision that ordered Cook to be reinstated to her post on the Fed Board.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this week that Cook could remain in her role while a legal challenge to her firing moves forward.

In a filing to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the dispute involves “improper judicial interference with the President’s removal authority — here, interference with the President’s authority to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for cause.”

We may soon witness a black hole explosion with over 90% probability– www.techexplorist.com
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For decades, physicists believed black hole explosions were rare cosmic events, happening maybe once every 100,000 years. But a groundbreaking study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst flips that assumption on its head, with a bold prediction: there’s a more than 90% chance we’ll witness one within the next ten years.

And not just any black hole. This would be the first-ever observed explosion of a primordial black hole (PBH), a theoretical type born less than a second after the Big Bang. If spotted, it could unlock the deepest secrets of the universe.

“We believe that there is up to a 90% chance of witnessing an exploding PBH in the next 10 years,” says Aidan Symons, co-author and graduate student in physics at UMass Amherst.

Unlike the black holes formed from dying stars, PBHs are thought to have emerged from the chaotic energy of the early universe. They’re incredibly dense, yet much lighter than their stellar cousins. And thanks to Stephen Hawking’s 1970 prediction, we know they can emit particles through Hawking radiation, a slow leak that gets faster as the black hole gets hotter, until it explodes.

“The lighter a black hole is, the hotter it should be and the more particles it will emit. As PBHs evaporate, they become ever lighter and hotter, emitting even more radiation in a runaway process until they explode. It’s that Hawking radiation that our telescopes can detect,” says Andrea Thamm, assistant professor of physics at UMass Amherst.