Who would attack a century-old tree?
Fortunately, none of the trees around the State House have been damaged permanently, but this is still alarming.
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A new virus is found in lynx – passed on by ticks, of course
The only state in the Northeast with a resident breeding population of lynx is Maine but they female lynx with kittens have been observed in N.H. and Vermont, which suggests an expansion of their range
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Why would a slowing of the Gulf Stream raise sea levels in New England?
Sea level isn’t level, and it looks like ours is going to be even less level, rather quickly.
read moreNew Hampshire will use 15% of its VW settlement to support electric vehicles
Should we build charging stations on highways? Subsidize home charging? Subsidize at-work charging? Mail everybody in the state a parcel full of electrons? They’re looking for ideas.
read moreIn Keene, they shut down a road to help frogs
The decision by the city council was prodded by a volunteer group with the awesome name of the Salamander Brigade. Sounds like a renegade troupe of World War II soldiers.
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“Amazing Stories” will return to print after N.H. kickstarter succeeds
Hugo Gernsback would be proud.
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Rain won’t go through solar panels, so Concord plan gets nixed
A proposal to build the state’s largest solar farm on a bend of the river in Concord has been rejected after running afoul of city zoning laws designed to keep land from getting over-covered by structures. The ZBA rejected a proposal for a 54-acre solar farm off West Portsmouth Street because it had too much “impervious surface,” meaning area that would cause rain to run off rather than soak in.
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Glass is made from sand, so can it be used in place of sand?
Grinding up glass to use in roadbeds makes sense because you can’t get money for recycling it any more – but it’s not as easy as it seems.
read moreFor all practical purposes NH has no over-wintering bats any more
Recent surveys for bats in New Hampshire hibernacula, places where bats spend the winter, resulted in biologists finding a total of only 26 bats. In 2008, the same hibernacula had nearly 4,000 bats.
read moreUtility wants to subsidize in-home batteries, even without solar panels, to reduce grid costs
Liberty Utilities pilot project in Lebanon, N.H., seeks to avoid upgrade to a substation and reduces some peak-usage-time power costs.
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Science Cafe NH
Granite Geek on NH Public RadioAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 - yes, that long - and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on New Hampshire Public Radio.
Brooks earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you'll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.