Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Net metering boosts UNH power from landfill gas
There are all sorts of green-energy reasons to admire what the UNH Durham campus is doing with electricity and heat but if that doesn’t move you, consider the green-eyeshade reasons. “It gives us budget certainty,” said Bill Janelle, associate vice president of...
Plant hardiness maps show the northward march of non-New England weather
On Nov. 11, the gorgeous ginkgo tree on the Durham campus of UNH dropped all of its bright yellow leaves at once, an eye-popping move that ginkgo trees are famous for doing at the season’s first hard frost. The annual leaf-drop has long been cause for minor...
NH patents through Nov. 26
(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 Nov. 26. *** Rule-Based Network-Threat Detection for Encrypted...
NH is a big hole when it comes to big solar
This map from Canary Media (story here) is worth 1,000 words when it comes to utility-scale (over 1 MW) solar projects. New Hampshire might as well be the Adirondack National Forest.
Independent co-working spaces in NH say “WeWork who?”
The recent bankruptcy of the high-profile startup WeWork may have cast a pall on the coworking industry nationally but you wouldn’t know it from New Hampshire’s independent operators. “We started with 2,400 square feet, now at 8,000. We’re into the majority of the...
Run a speed test at home to help expand NH broadband
UPDATE: In seven months leading up to the day before this story rain in the Monitor, the state has seen 915 speed tests. On the day it ran, they got 270 more, and they're still coming in as I write this. New Hampshire is getting ready to take the next step in bringing...
Rhode Island wind farm starts construction
Off the coast of Rhode Idland, Revolution Wind. a joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource, has started building a 704 MW wind farm in Rhode Island Sound south of Point Judith. It will send power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. Quonset, R.I., is going to be a...
Another climate change measurement: The UNH ginkgo tree
Many ginkgo trees are famous for dropping all their leaves at once - whomp! - after the first hard frost. There's one tree on the Durham campus of UNH and people have kept records on its leaf-drop day since the 1970s. This year's drop was the latest on record, as...
NH patents through Nov. 19
(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 Nov. 19. *** Guided Munition Systems for Detecting Off-Axis Targets BAE...
NH Audubon: Where are all the birds?
New Hampshire Audubon has a long post responding to some people who are alarmed that they've seen very few birds at their feeders this year, especially this fall. The post is here. tl'dr - it's not avian flu, it's this year's weather. Warm and rainy summer means...
Return to the Concord MonitorAbout 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.