Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Everything you wish you didn’t have to know about why ticks carry so many diseases
An online news source with the clumsy name The Conversation has a long, well-reported piece on why ticks carry so many bad diseases. You can read it here. Contained in every bite of this infuriating, insatiable pest is also a trove of social, environmental and...
Utility unveils an almost-but-not-quite-5 MW solar array
Not everybody is crazy about utilty-owned solar; they fear the utilities will favor their own setup and squash independents. Nonetheless, let's celebrate a just-barely-under-the-state's-silly-5MW-net-metering-limit array, via a Unitil press release: Unitil Corporation...
You have to flip a lot of pages on the calendar to find the last time it didn’t rain on a Saturday
Something weird is going to happen Saturday in Concord: It won’t rain. Not raining on Saturdays didn’t used to be weird, but then The Spring of 2025 arrived with orders to dampen our weekends. Dampen them, it did. According to the National Weather Service, the gauge...
Yes, they’re all scams
I hate overreacting to bad news, but I don’t think this statement is an overreaction: All emails, texts and phone calls that you get from companies, non-profits and government organizations are scams. Yes, all of them. Sounds extreme, I know, but this is the only...
Curious about ham radio? Field Day (June 28, 29) is your chance to learn
Every year amateur radio operators, also known as ham radio operators, participate in a nationwide event called Field Day on June 28 and June 29, 2025. The primary objective of Field Day is for ham operators to practice transmitting and receiving from remote...
NH patents through June 15
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through June 15. *** System, Method, and Apparatus for Detecting Air in a Fluid...
Trump’s USDA may give green light to GMO chestnut tree
Word is percolating online that Trump's mangled/decimated US Department of Agriculture might go ahead approve a genetically modified variant of the American chestnut tree, a wonderful species that as you probably know was wiped out by fungus. This is the latest twist...
Science Cafe 6/17: ‘Impacts of Tech on Child Development’
Science Cafe NH is closing out the first half of the 2025 season with an important topic concerning technology and children. The event will feature panelists exploring "The Impacts of Technology on Child Development." Attendees can expect a lively conversation...
Community Power Coalition, a sort of co-op for buying electricity, is having a tough time
From NHPR: (full story is here) Electric rates for members of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire are higher, for the first time, than rates for customers with any of the state’s investor-owned utility companies. As community power programs have grown in...
From YouTube to the language of the universe via polynomials
Just like you and me, Dean Rubine admits that he sometimes wastes time online. “When I’m not doing my real job, I like to watch math on YouTube,” he said. OK, maybe he’s not just like you and me. And as we’ll see, it’s not always a waste of time. Rubine is a computer...
Return to the Concord Monitor