Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Our coal-fired power continues as protesters go to trial
New England's last coal-fired power plant, Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H., has won yet another year of guaranteed funding ($750K per month, roughly) under the annual forward capacity market, but there are signs that cheap power from renewables might be started to eat...
NIH grants in NH totaled $115 million in 2021
I'm always slightly dubious of reports about the economic and job-creation effect of research grants in any geographic area because it depends on a lot of assumptions. With that in mind ... The National Institutes of Health says New Hampshire received $115 million in...
Oh boy: Dartmouth research predicts yet more political polarization is likely
News subtitle A long-standing theorem in the study of American politics holds that candidates will run to the middle in an attempt to win support from the average voter. But a mathematical model developed by a team in Associate Professor of Mathematics Feng Fu’s...
While you were shoveling the driveway they were shoveling in the woods – for science!
It takes a lot of incentive to get people to go out into the woods and shift 15,000 kilograms (16.5 tons) of snow around by hand. Fortunately, scientific curiosity is a great incentive. Earlier this month, six people spent three days at Hubbard Brook Experimental...
U.S. seafood workers at increased risk for COVID-19 during pandemic
My native thought was that the seafood industry would have less COVID-19 than most of us because they're fishing, well separated and in the open air. But much of the industry involves processing fish indoors so that you can I can get those convenient fillets, and...
Are rental and vacation homes the reason it’s hard to find housing?
What explains the incredibly tight housing market in New Hampshire right now, with rental units almost impossible to find and houses snapped up the moment a For Sale sign appears? One possibility is that the market is being artificially squeezed by vacation homes or...
N.H. patents issued through March 13
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from March 13 to March 20. *** Desprez Assigned Patent for Methods Software for Pricing-Method-Agnostic Ecommerce Marketplace for Manufacturing Services...
Permanent DST would squelch our Atlantic Time Zone fantasies
(This ran in the Monitor on Thursday. Also on Thursday, Buzzfeed News ran a piece (here) saying the Senate vote was sort of a mistake, snuck through under an obscure thing called unanimous consent. So dropping Daylight Saving Time may not be as near as we thought.)...
Heat pumps are awesome; shared heat pumps are awesomer
Here’s an idea for Concord as it tries to cut its carbon emissions: Swap individual gas furnaces in buildings for a city-wide heating system fueled by a renewable source. Pull that off and we’d be the envy of the net-zero world! Yes, that’s sarcasm – and...
Solar, wind, batteries & demand response = 15% of NE power needs by 2025
As a further sign of changes happening to the electric grid, non-traditional power sources – solar and wind generation, energy storage and reduction in demand resources – accounted for 15% of all power production that won the latest futures auction in New England, far...
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