Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire

Ugh – a return (even if momentary) of the COVID tracker
Six weeks ago, the >italic<Concord Monitor>res< happily mothballed the weekly COVID Tracker after 20 months of pondering the ups and downs of the pandemic, with fingers crossed that it would never return. Alas, we have had to uncross our fingers, at least...
Plastic ‘recycling’ is a joke – a painful one
"Tthe high recycling rates of post-consumer paper, cardboard, and metals prove thatrecycling can be an effective way to reclaim valuable natural material resources. The problemlies not with the concept or process of recycling but with the material itself – it is...
N.H. patents through May 1
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from April 24 through May 1. *** Centripetal Networks Assigned Patent for Efficient Threat Context-Aware Packet Filtering for Network Protection Centripetal...
Anti-Lyme Disease GMO mice still targeted for Nantucket
Since at lease 2016 there was talk about releasing tons of GMO white-footed mice on Nantucket, a Lyme disease hotbed, to test whether we can break the Lyme transmission cycle. There's still talk, reports the Boston Globe, although it's getting closer. Rather than...

UNH to monitor underwater sound for Vineyard Wind
Vineyard Wind, the offshore-wind farm that hopes to start producing power next year, has announced a new multi-year collaboration with the University of New Hampshire to deploy a Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) device to record ambient sound and marine mammal...

Sex secrets of amphibian singing choruses
The above headline is taken from the Dartmouth press release because I can't improve on any headline starting with "sex secrets". The web story (here it is) has a link to a video/audio recording showing this cool camera at work. NY Times Science has a story today too...
Trimming climate change impact, one cooler door at a time
Tackling big problems, as I’m sure you’re been told, requires thinking outside the box. Even if the box is vertical, chilled, and full of tomorrow’s dinner. “Ten years ago, this was heresy – putting a door between the product and the customer!” said George Parmenter,...
Burning wood for heat can reduce emissions if done the New England way
This is an opinion piece from Sam Evans Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire and Joe Short is vice president of the Northern Forest Center. Within the growing clean energy community, advocates agree that transitioning away from fossil fuels must be...
How much rice can rice cookers cook if rice cookers also play music?
I'm an old grump who snorts derisively at the term "art installation" because it didn't exist when I was young (that's usually why old grumps snort derisively) but I'll make the occasional exception. Playing a concert on rice cookers hacked with Arduinos that also...
N.H. food composting may get a boost now that meat, dairy can join the mix
There is something about rot and decay – the organic kind, not the political – that I can’t resist. It’s not just the “circle of life” celebration of microbes turning yesterday’s lunch into tomorrow’s topsoil. It’s also the satisfaction of keeping stuff out of the...