Alas, the photos of me wearing blaze orange and hiding in the woods have disappeared
Hunting seasons are upon us, and New Hampshire Fish and Game is reminding hunters (and other people going into the woods) that it's a good idea to wear blaze orange, sometimes called Hunter Orange. Humans can spot this almost-neon color a mile away but it is not...
read moreWhy do people walk on two legs? That’s weird, when you think about it.
“It’s not often that people stop and think about how weird it is that we walk on two legs,” says Jeremy DeSilva, an associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College who specializes in the evolution of human locomotion. That simple question—why are humans...
read more$10 million to boost UNH biomedical research
I don't usually write about grants but this one seems pretty cool, especially on top of the regenerative-medicine project they're developing in Manchester. New Hampshire is scrambling to be part of the bio-tech wave: From UNH New Services: The University of New...
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What if the Hurricane of 1938 hit today?
The worst hurricane in New England history unleashed a devastating combination of wind and water 79 years ago, and with hurricanes ravaging the southeast U.S. and the Caribbean, it’s hard not to wonder what would happen if that storm returned today. Frank Magilligan...
read moreMore – much, much more – about where exactly is halfway between the equator and the North Pole
Back in June I wrote a story about the 45th parallel, which runs through New Hampshire. The state has two (two!) historical markers noting that you are halfway between the equator and the North Pole at that point. Except you're not really because of geometry, as you...
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In attempt to break marathon record, Nike used UNH wind tunnel for R&D
The sports-shoe company Nike tried to get somebody to break the two-hour barrier in running the marathon (26.2 miles). The effort fell just short, but as UNH reports, part of the preparation included wind tunnel tests in Durham at the UNH flow physics facility, which...
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Conway is a geothermal hot spot, due to underground radioactivity
Every few years a new study comes out about geothermal power in the U.S., which means that every few years I can talk about how the Conway region is one of the most likely places for geothermal power in the Northeast. I mean real geothermal, which uses high...
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Why do some deciduous trees hold onto their leaves all winter?
As New England prepares to enter its annual leaf-peeping frenzy, a question arises: Why don't oak trees and beech trees drop their leaves in winter, like all the other deciduous species up here? This is, I recently learned, called "marcescence" and there doesn't seem...
read moreCome see (& talk about) a movie concerning the most surprising math in NH history
As promised last week, I'm hosting a talk next Tuesday (Sept. 26) after a showing of "Counting From Infinity" - here's my column from the Monitor discussing it: No matter how many bar arguments you’ve been involved in, I’ll bet you’ve never heard one around the...
read moreWatch the video of Science Cafe about regenerative medicine & ARMI in Manchester
Concord TV, the community access channel in the state capitol, films each month's Science Cafe Concord and puts it online. They share the file with other community-access channels across the country and tell me that lots of other stations rebroadcast it. We seem to be...
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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.