Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Maine might end an odd quirk: Obscene license plates
Geeks like clever vanity license plates - e.g., FEATURE on an original Volkswagen Beetle - and while you can't exactly call FUCKU "clever", many find it amusing that this plate and similar swearing-filled plates are allowed in Maine. Not, perhaps, for long,...
Attempting some extreme climate adaptation for a tree species
I'm familiar with the idea of assisted migration for trees to help them survive climate change - generally, planting them further north because the populations can't naturally migrate fast enough to avoid the altering climate. I've never heard of trying to get a...
A bunch of people will be on the beach Thursday to watch a semi-blocked sun rise
People will be going to the beach early Thursday morning – very early Thursday morning – and not just to beat the heat. When the sun rises at 5:06 a.m. that day, it will be partly blocked by the moon, creating an annular eclipse. For the next hour, if the weather...
Tackling an aquatic pest produces possible insight into where our brains came from
A little over 700 million years ago, our ancestors were presented with a choice: Do you want to be immortal or do you want to be able to see, smell and hear stuff? The simple creatures that eventually evolved into us wanted to enjoy sensory input rather than never...
UNH records a deer traveling 180 miles in three weeks
A UNH researcher has discovered the longest travel distance ever recorded by an adult male white-tailed deer — 300 kilometers, or about 200 miles, in just three weeks. The study, led by assistant professor of wildlife ecology Remington Moll and published in the...
How long is our coastline, really? And is there really a “really”?
With everybody flocking to the beach on this hot and humid day, it's appopriate to revisit my 2016 I wrote a column looking at why some sources say New Hampshire’s ocean coastline is 18 miles long but some say it’s 13 miles and some say it’s 235 miles, and why people...
Even for the rich, the good old days included intestinal parasites
Archaeologists love trash pits and outhouse sites because what we discard, either physical or biological, tells a lot about life. The Valley News has a good story about a dig in a former "privy" (love that word) in Hanover that reminded us how much unpleasant...
Two ‘science cafes’ in N.H. are better than one
Science Café New Hampshire in Nashua and Concord and the SEE Science Center's Science on Tap in Manchester are teaming up to celebrate 10 years of bringing people and panelists together for informal science conversations. On June 15th these two programs are joining...
Getting eelgrass back in Great Bay will take a lot of work
Warming waters in Great Bay may be contributing to die-off of eelgrass, a cornerstone species in New Hampshire's huge tidal basin. New Hampshire Bulletin, a new statewide news organization, has a story about pilot projects to try replanting eelgrass to get the...
N.H. patents through June 6
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from May 30 to June 6. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for Inter-PGW Handover Architecture Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,026,276,...
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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 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.