Study: Sewage may predict COVID outbreaks by three days
Spotting the RNA of the novel coronavirus in sewage outflows proved to be a very effective method of predicting COVID-19 outbreaks, according to a preprint (i.e., not peer-reviewed) of a study by a number of researchers at Yale. You can read it here. SARS-CoV-2 RNA...
Getting sticks pushed up your nose is no longer unusual
When I drove up to the Milford Armory recently to get my free COVID-19 test, the National Guard solider at the gate explained the procedure this way: “It’s just like Dunkin’ Donuts.” He meant that I should stay in my car and the medic would come to me, but I’ve got...
There are at least 35 – soon, 34 – public payphones in rural Maine
Tux Turkel of the Portland Presss-Herald has a story about a Maine town with the wonderful name of Wytopitlock (population: 140) that wants to get rid of its only pay phone and replace it with a vending machine. A public interest payphone is part of a program...
Vermont utility gets OK to expand home-battery program
Green Mountain Power, which covers most of Vermont, has been an innovative utility in many ways - partly because it's pretty small, which makes it cheaper to try stuff. Two years ago it began subsidizing Tesla batteries for customers' homes as long as they gave the...
Heavier rainfall makes dams a bit nervous
As extreme precipitation events - meteorology-speak for "holy @#*@&@*&!!! look at it rain!!!!" - grow more common, it's possible that me may need to look at standards for how much water dams can pass without being overtopped. I've got a story sort of about...
Is COVID killing telemarketing calls?
A site called reportedcalls keeps track of complaints to federal agencies about telemarketing calls and it shows something unexpected: Complaints were way, way down in April, both in New Hampshire (as shown above) and nationally. Folks in New Hampshire is not shy...
Released cottontails thrived, but it takes lots of releases
From UNH News Service: Researchers with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire have been monitoring an effort to reintroduce New England cottontails raised in captivity into the wild. Using DNA to track the survival and...
N.H. patents through May 24
By Targeted News Service The following federal patents were assigned to companies and individuals in New Hampshire from May 17 to May 24. *** Centripetal Networks Assigned Patent for Correlating Packets in Communications Networks Centripetal Networks, Portsmouth, New...
In N.H., COVID-19 is a fatal disease of the old, especially old men
New Hampshire is pretty old and pretty white, which is contributing to some interesting trends in COVID-19. Of the 199 deaths related to the disease so far, a whopping 89% have been reported in people over the age of 70. No deaths have been reported in anybody under...
A loon stabbed a bald eagle to death with its beak
What else can I say? Apparently it was defending the chicks in its nest, according to the story in the Bangor Daily News.
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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 WKXL radio in Concord.
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.