Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Love J.R.R. Tolkien? You can now get a graduate degree in his work
Signum University is an online university based in Nashua that emphasizes the study of fantasy and science fiction such as "Lord of the Rings" and various Medieval works, as well as some old European languages and philology, the study of how language develops. The...
Ice, eels, bubbles – the perils of hydropower plants
Do you know what "frazil ice" is? Then you're smarter than me - I only learned yesterday while reporting about Concord's net-metering purchase of 9 million KWH of power from a local hydropower plant: The article is here.
N.H. gets an unwanted first: Our first official plant extinction
This is a press release from the state concerning a plant I wrote about last October (here) The N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau has announced that smooth slender crabgrass, a plant previously known to exist only at Rock Rimmon Park in Manchester, has been officially...
N.H. patents through June 19
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 12 through June 19. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for Base Station Power Management Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a...
As summer starts, COVID is worse than last year at this time
With all due respect to meteorologists and their measurements, summer doesn’t really start until high schools graduate. Now that “Pomp and Circumstance” has been heard on football fields all over New Hampshire we can say the outdoor season is definitely here, which...
N.H. honors chain-link fence breakthrough
A few years back, as part of my drive to create a historical highway marker honoring the creation of the BASIC computer language, I complained that too many of New Hampshire's highway historical markers focus on buildings, bridges and politicians; very repetitive....
UMaine center makes more engineered lumber available for buildings
One of the many ways we need to change society to reduce damage to the planet is to replace concrete and steel in buildings with engineered lumber, a.k.a. cross-laminated timber. That's a term for panels or timbers made from layering small pieces of lumber in...
Intriguing “frozen air” energy storage in Vermont gets canned
Alas, the company Highview Power has given up on a plan I wrote about in 2019 to develop a long-term energy storage project in northern Vermont that freezes and unfreezes air. This is the statement I got from the company when I asked for an update: As a UK-based...
Questions about Maine “sink kelp to bury carbon” startup
That intriguing startup in Maine that wants to grow kelp on sea buoys and then sink it as a way to remove carbon (mentioned a year ago) is facing a lot of questions, reports MIT Technology Review (article here). Among them: Several seaweed experts and marine...
Growing crops indoors North of the Notches
A big (by New England standards) hydroponic greenhouse that uses combined heat and power from natural gas to grow lettuce - and later, maybe, tomatoes - is being built on a former landfill site in the city of Berlin, way up North of the Notches. Here's a Union-Leader...
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