...Under a power purchase agreement, Aethero will draw electricity on demand from Star Catcher’s planned orbital energy grid. The arrangement is designed to let spacecraft access additional power when computing loads rise, without having to carry enough onboard generation and storage to cover those peaks...

...The company says it can harvest solar energy and beam concentrated power directly onto existing satellite solar panels, allowing spacecraft to generate up to 10 times more power on demand without installing specialized receivers...

...The company is preparing for its first in-space power-beaming demonstration later this year, with another mission already in development...

...Historically, scientists have viewed the cosmos as akin to a rock—complex, perhaps even beautiful, but formed through arbitrary events. Evolutionary cosmologists instead argue that universes, like living organisms, grow and reproduce, spinning off new universes with small variations from their progenitors. In doing so, these cosmic offspring are refined across generations into forms that maximize the number of universes yet to be born. Since the Big Bang, our universe, like any developing child, has been unfurling into an optimal shape.

Under this view, the universe is not a rock. It is an egg...

Smolin’s work was, in turn, inspired by physicists Bryce DeWitt and John Wheeler, who proposed that singularities inside black holes, the places where matter is crushed into a point of infinite density, might expand to produce new universes that follow different physics from the universes that produced them. Every universe—including our own—would, under this logic, have emerged from a Big Bang within a black hole.

Smolin realized that this hypothetical process would allow universes to reproduce, in a way, by making more black holes. And if those new universes could inherit the physics of their parents with small differences—just as new organisms inherit the genes of their parents with small differences—then universes could also evolve with each generation. Specifically, a form of cosmic natural selection would favor universes that make as many black holes as possible. Less fertile universes could persist, but they would produce far fewer offspring. So over time, an increasingly high proportion of universes would be optimized for black hole production—which would imply that our universe, given the odds, is one of those...

...The setup starts with an idea from last year. Certain exotic forms of dark matter, arranged in a halo with a particular relationship between pressure and density, can produce black holes with no singularity at the center. These are so-called "regular black holes," where the equations stay sensible all the way to the center. Tan and Wang asked what happens if you drop an ordinary neutron star into the middle of one of these halos...

...The crucial point in this model is that nothing collapsed. The gravity making the horizon comes from the star and the halo combined, with the dark matter contributing roughly as much mass as the star itself...

...The dark matter densities this requires are far greater than anything astronomers actually expect dark matter to reach. This is not a claim about objects out there in the sky, but more of a thought experiment with the mathematics filled in. It says the inside of a black hole need not be the end of physics. There is at least one solution in which it's a place, with something in it...

...1. The Qatari Jet:...

...2. Corner-Cutting on Presidential Security...

...3. A Desperate Cover-up and Attack on Freedom of the Press...

...4. The Secret Flight — A Decoy and a Cover-up...

...5. The Still-Real Nuclear Risk and Failure of the War with Iran:... "he has left a standing order that if he’s killed Iran is to be obliterated by US nuclear missiles."

UK-based engineer Tom Stanton has successfully built a trebuchet that can send projectiles flying at supersonic speeds...

In the video, the projectile reached 776 mph (1,248 kph) or nine miles per hour faster than the speed of sound. The proof may be in the numbers but the loud crack and echo of the sonic boom did confirm that history was made that day.

...Primordial black holes (PBHs) are only hypothetical, but they generate a lot of interest. If they're real, they formed immediately after the Big Bang from direct collapse of dense clumps of subatomic matter, without the need for any stellar progenitor. Researchers have long thought that they could be the prime component, or even the only component, of dark matter...

This schematic shows a PBH passing through a white dwarf. As it passes through, its gravitational force creates tidal heating in the middle of the white dwarf. Once the material reaches the threshold temperature of <~0.5 billion Kelvin, it triggers uncontrolled nuclear burning. If the region burning is big enough, then thermonuclear runaway will trigger a Type Ia supernova. Image Credit: Kavli IPMU/Gemini AI (Banana Pro)...

...In April 2018, a team led by Oxford planetary physicist Patrick Irwin reported the first clear detection of hydrogen sulfide gas sitting above Uranus’s main cloud deck...

Hydrogen sulfide is the same colorless, toxic gas that gives rotten eggs their smell, and people can detect it at very low concentrations, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry...

On an infrared camera, a warm object normally stands out clearly against cooler surroundings. Researchers have now built a three-dimensional cloak that bends heat around an object, erasing its thermal outline while protecting the space inside from temperature extremes...

This approach could eventually improve heat control around microchips and sensitive electronic components. It may also help protect equipment in severe environments or reduce the thermal signatures used to locate people and machinery...

They printed a precise aluminum lattice in 3D to create highly conductive pathways through the cloak. Aluminum moves heat readily, allowing energy to travel quickly through selected regions. The remaining spaces were filled through mold casting with a rubbery material that transfers heat much more slowly.

Together, the materials created a controlled thermal route. Some sections accelerated heat flow while others restricted it, steering energy around the space occupied by the concealed object...

...In electronic systems, the cloak might redirect heat away from vulnerable components or prevent nearby heat sources from interfering with delicate devices.

It could also help protect equipment exposed to extreme temperatures. Security and defense applications are another possibility, including reducing the infrared signatures that allow thermal cameras to distinguish people or machinery from their surroundings...

...Concealing an object that produces its own heat presents a more difficult problem because that energy would continue building inside the protected region and could eventually reveal its location...

The researchers now plan to investigate smart, multifunctional cloaks capable of performing those active tasks. Such devices could eventually do more than hide a thermal signature by deliberately controlling where heat gathers, how it spreads, and where it leaves the protected region...

Early on the morning of July 24, Ukrainian forces attacked more Wildberries logistics centers — this time in Crimea, the Leningrad region, and St. Petersburg. In Russia’s northwest, drones damaged two separate warehouse complexes, in Shushary and Utkina Zavod. Authorities did not report any injuries. Nikolai (name changed), a St. Petersburg resident who was near the site of the drone strike in Shushary, told Meduza what happened after the attack...

People had expected this and said so openly: “It’s strange that we haven’t been hit yet.” If Wildberries was under attack, then all the big logistics centers would be destroyed, St. Petersburg’s included. It was only a matter of time...

When the internet shutdown happened last year, everyone was furious and complained. Then they got used to it very quickly: “Fine, whitelists it is. Fine, VPNs it is. We’ll each buy 300,000 VPNs and find the best one.”

Then came the gasoline crisis: at first people were horrified, and now it’s eased off. The same thing is happening with Wildberries: the fire in Elektrostal caused a sensation; it was some kind of super-event. But now everyone is very calm about it.

The deeper questions worry people far more: whether martial law will be imposed, whether there will be a mobilization. I can’t say people are out on the street talking about it on every corner, but you hear these conversations when you’re sitting in a bar or someplace like that. It worries men and women alike. Some are already making plans — voting, for instance, and then leaving the country right away, just in case.

...The Ukrainian defense ministry reported that the drone is highly maneuverable and provides precise and smooth control at various speeds.

The Cyclops UAS was developed by a Ukrainian company. The system has several variants.

The first variant is less expensive, simpler in design, and easier to operate. These are designed to engage ground targets, as well as slow-moving aerial targets at low altitudes.

The second variant has significantly higher tactical and technical characteristics and is designed to effectively engage high-speed Shahed drones at high altitudes...

..."Eventually, we need some form of universal basic income for everybody while they work and once they retire," Roubini added. "We're already on the way."...

"We'll have either ex-post distribution—that is universal basic income—or we'll have it ex-ante. Ex-ante means some form of socialism," Roubini explained. "Essentially, the government is going to take over some fraction of the big tech firms."

He said AI companies are already willing to hand over stakes to the government, alluding to a Financial Times report that said OpenAI has discussed giving 5% as a way for the public to share in the upside of AI.

Altman's proposal would entail other AI companies providing similar stakes, although it's not clear if his U.S. rivals would be willing to do so.

As a result, Roubini believes universal basic income or socialism is inevitable, saying "We're going already in that direction, effectively."...

...he called it optimistic, given that it assumes 10% growth and "machines doing all the work."...