Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
The heat dome in the coolest summer of the rest of our lives
I was on vacation playing with a grandchild during last week’s heat dome, so I didn’t pay much attention to the details. Now I’m back at work and wondering: How bad was it? Bad, of course. The state’s official thermometer at Concord airport broke the daily heat record...
This is why you don’t mess with wild animals, even the cute friendly ones
A New Hampshire man has been hospitalized with symptoms consistent with rabies after being bitten by his pet raccoon, leading Fish and Game to remind people to stay away from wild animals because of the danger of the deadly disease. Rabies is almost always fatal in...
A wall-mounted printer becomes self-creating artwork
There’s something a bit odd about the framed drawing that hangs on the wall of Revelstoke Coffee: It keeps changing itself. “We were brainstorming and I thought, what if it is art that makes art?” said Richard Stoyle, who built the computer-controlled device that has...
Changing climate means trees are keeping more nitrogen, depriving the soil
Warmer seasons and later onset of cold weather in the Northeast appears to be changing the chemical composition of leaves that fall from hardwood trees, reducing the amount of nitrogen available in the soil. Less soil nitrogen (actually, a different carbon-nitrogen...
First the bark, now the leaves: Beech trees are taking it hard
A few weeks ago a reader suggested I write about beech leaf disease, but I said it wasn’t that big a deal. Then I went for a walk in the woods and was astonished – but not in a good way. “Our beech has been dealing with bark disease for so long they’re already in...
NH patents through June 29
(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 29. Iron Nanoparticles and Methods of Production UNIVERSITY OF NEW...
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...
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