Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Eat the invaders? Why not drink them!
By the Associated Press: A New Hampshire distillery has come up with its newest concoction called “Crab Trapper” — whiskey flavored with invasive green crabs. Tamworth Distilling, a maker of craft spirits, has learned how to get attention with small batches of, shall...
N.H. patents through June 26
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 19 through June 26. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for Blind Fast Network Synchronization Algorithm Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has...
Drowning in plastic waste? Techno-Fix to the rescue! (not)
None of us, it’s safe to say, is immune to the appeal of the quick Techno-Fix even though they have let us down time and again. This includes our lawmakers, who have just doubled down and decided that a new Techno-Fix can solve the problems of an old Techno-Fix. You...
N.H. lawmakers like nuclear power
The onslaught of the climate emergency has made nuclear power a lot more attractive to make people because it can be a big source of carbon-free power. The downsides are still there - especially waste disposal, very high cost and long construction times, fear of...
Efforts to return the chestnut to our forests continues a slow (oh, so slow!) advance
Resurrecting a tree species is not for the impatient. It’s been more than two decades since I first encountered efforts in New Hampshire to bring back the American chestnut, a magnificent tree that filled Appalachian forests until a blight wiped it out in the early...
If we create a blight-resistant chestnut tree, can birds spread it for us?
Elsewhere on this week's blog/newsletter you'll see my latest piece about efforts to create a blight-resistant chestnut tree. After I field it, I encountered this fascinating bit of research looking at how and whether birds, carrying chestnuts, could spread such a...
Love J.R.R. Tolkien? You can now get a graduate degree in his work
Signum University is an online university based in Nashua that emphasizes the study of fantasy and science fiction such as "Lord of the Rings" and various Medieval works, as well as some old European languages and philology, the study of how language develops. The...
Ice, eels, bubbles – the perils of hydropower plants
Do you know what "frazil ice" is? Then you're smarter than me - I only learned yesterday while reporting about Concord's net-metering purchase of 9 million KWH of power from a local hydropower plant: The article is here.
N.H. gets an unwanted first: Our first official plant extinction
This is a press release from the state concerning a plant I wrote about last October (here) The N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau has announced that smooth slender crabgrass, a plant previously known to exist only at Rock Rimmon Park in Manchester, has been officially...
N.H. patents through June 19
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 12 through June 19. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for Base Station Power Management Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a...
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 WGIR-AM 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.