Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
NH patents through April 18
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 in the week through April 18. Systems and Methods for High Velocity Nasal...
A.I. is breaking high school. Students are starting to sound the alarm.
That's the headline on this Concord Monitor story, talking to a number of students at Concord-area high schools. Many use ChatGPT or equivalent but they say overall, it is making school much worse. Interviews with eight students from four area high schools, all of...
NH just had one of the driest first-quarter-of-year on record
Despite several strong snowstorms across New Hampshire this winter and some rain in the past week, drought conditions persist statewide, resulting in elevated wildfire risk, the N.H. Forest Protection Bureau has announced. Dating back to when measurements were first...
Remember Beacon Power? Flywheels were the energy future that wasn’t
Back in the day I wrote about Beacon Power several times, although all the stories disappeared when the Nashua Telegraph's new owners took over and swapped servers. The Massachusetts company was building flywheels: large heavy spinning disks to store and release power...
Maine is a real community-solar leader
Maine, of all places, has the most per-capita distributed solar of any state, according to PV Magazine. (Article is here) They attribute that to community solar, "which accounted for 53% of Maine’s total existing solar capacity by the end of 2025." The United States...
3-D printed houses made in NH? Ask Science Cafe!
Can a giant 3D printer help solve New Hampshire’s housing shortage? Join Science Café NH for a lively discussion on how large-scale 3D printing is reshaping the future of home construction—making it faster, more sustainable, and potentially far more affordable....
Eelgrass is struggling in the Great Bay, a bad sign for the whole ecosystem
From a Conservation Law Foundation news release: Eelgrass – underwater seagrasses that are the foundation of the Great Bay estuary’s ecosystem – say its coverage across the estuary fall by 80 percent in a single year, from more than 1,000 acres in 2024 to just 211...
NH is being humiliated in the Rain Gauge Rally. Quick – sign up!
Every year CoCoRaHS, the citizen-science precipitation-watching group, holds a month-long rally to sign up new "watchers." As of right now not a single person has signed up in New Hampshire, and we're halfway through the month! Four people have already signed up in...
Want to be a wildlife biologist? Get your culvert maintainer’s license.
New Hampshire Fish and Game posted this on their Facebook page, with the above illustration. As a long-time fan of culverts, those tubes running beneath roads that are a major but mostly invisible bit of infrastructure, I had to reprint it. Why would a biologist need...
Cyanobacteria blooms are a nasty and expensive (and growing) problem
New Hampshire Bulletin has a long story about cyanobacteria blooms (often called, inaccurately, algae blooms) in the state's lakes and ponds. The full story is here. About 60 to 70 water bodies in the state deal with a bloom each year, and half of those tend to be...
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