The state’s oldest (probably) electric car chargers are full of wasps
(If you like old electronics, check out my story about the oldest operating solar panel in New Hampshire.) Electric vehicles are all the rage these days but as far as former NHTI professor Tom Hopper is concerned, we’re a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys. He remembers...
read more
The first SF magazine, ‘Amazing Stories’, is back in print thanks to NH man
It has taken almost a decade of effort that included disputes with Apple, NBC and Steven Spielberg as well as an appeal to Kickstarter, but a New Hampshire man’s dream of relaunching the original science-fiction magazine is finally in print. Not just in print, but in...
read more
Fan of SF? Dartmouth has an event for you
The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College is a cross-discipline effort to integrate the humanities with computer science and technology, enriching both. This year it established a Literary Arts Award for Speculative Fiction, with a $5,000...
read moreNH lottery instant games go online
ottery has plunged further into the digital world by offering eight instant games online. The games, with names like Jackpot Cash and Multiplier Max-Out and costing between 2 cents and $10 dollars, are similar to instant tickets sold in stores but do not have the same...
read moreThe lynx is a secretive beast, but now we’ve got its genome down pat
The first whole genome for the Canada lynx is one of 14 genomes the Vertebrate Genome Laboratory is making available for use by researchers studying evolution, disease and conservation. Other animals include the duck-billed platypus, two different species of bats, a...
read more
What we need: A 3D-printed statue of NH video game pioneer sitting on a public bench
I thought I was pretty clever to pursue a state historical marker for the creators of the BASIC computer language (as I note elsewhere), but I've been one-upped by the group that wants to recognize Ralph Baer, who led the team that created the first home video game...
read moreApplication for that BASIC historical marker is in
You'll be happy to know that I have sent off an official application to the N.H. Division of Historical Resources to create a highway historical marker honoring the creation of BASIC and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System. I'll keep you posted. Baffled? Read this...
read more
A picture (well, a chart) is worth 1,000 words
Hurricane Florence was large played out by the time it made it to New Hampshire on Tuesday, but still dumped an impressive amount of rain. The best graphic representation is seen above: An automated streamflow gauge run by the U.S. Geological Survey recorded it at the...
read more
$20 million to boost NH tissue engineering & similar biomaterials development
From UNH Today: UNH will lead a five-year EPSCoR project funded by the National Science Foundation to develop innovative approaches in the development of biomaterials, such as those used in implants and tissue engineering, which hold the potential to save patient...
read more
There’s lots of carbon trapped in the soil, and we really want it to stay there
Remember when carbon was just another listing on the periodic table that nobody mentioned unless they were geeks making a “carbon-based life form” joke? Ah, those were the days. Now we can’t move without bumping into news about carbon dioxide or carbon equivalents or...
read more
Return to the Concord Monitor
Science Cafe NHAbout 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.