Grasslands beat forests in taking advantage of warming winters
From UNH News Service: As the climate changes, Northeast winters are warming more rapidly than other times of the year. While this may mean favorable growing conditions start earlier in the year, some ecosystems, such as perennial grasslands, can take better advantage...
Ranked-choice voting for the Democratic primary – now available in the Monitor!
If there was ever an election where ranked-choice voting would be useful, the upcoming Democratic Presidential Primary is that election. A slew of candidates! No obvious front-runner! A range of policies and personalities to choose from! It’s a textbook example of a...
Why are stone wall patterns different around the state? (Or are they?)
The citizen-science online program New Hampshire Stone Wall Mapper has generated a lot of interest since it launched in January. (Here’s my story about it back then.) More than 146,000 walls, some 11,200 miles worth, have been found via LIDAR maps of New...
Trumpeter swan seen in N.H. for first time in centuries
There are so many ecological disasters these days that it’s nice to hear about an improvement, like the resurrection of the Trumpeter Swan, one of which returned to New Hampshire during migration this year for the first time in perhaps 200 years. By 1900, the...By forcing our trash calamity, ‘the Chinese did us a favor’
There are a lot of surprises in a new state report about solid waste, including the fact that other states are shipping tens of thousands of tons of trash to our landfills because it’s cheaper here, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that it really shouldn’t...
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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.