Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Proposed NH EV laws: good, bad and complicated
New Hampshire continues to lag neighboring states in support for the growing tide of electric vehicles and the variety of bills before the legislature on the topic, not to mention the regulatory reason that the town of Derry removed its EV chargers, shows that...
How cold affects EV range (well – this one particular EV)
Cold weather affects all kinds of vehicles: Mileage on my Prius drops about 10% between summer and winter, and mileage on plain old gasoline cars also falls, although most people don't notice because they don't keep track. Electric vehicles owners definitely keep...
NH firms with stuff on the James Webb Space Telescope
A poster in reddit named AeroSpaceChair put up an item pointing out that at least three N.H. firms provided products used on the James Webb Space Telescope. (The post is here.) + Appli-Tec of Salem. Appli-Tec Part of Historic NASA Goddard Webb Space Telescope Project...
Maine tests using hemp to pull ‘forever chemicals’ out of the ground
The site Nothing But Hemp reports that tests are continuing at a former Air Force base in northern Maine to plant hemp on soil polluted with PFAS and similar chemicals because the plant removes them from the ground, a.k.a. phytoremediation. If this works out it could...
N.H. patents through Jan. 30
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Jan. 23 to Jan. 30. Centripetal Networks Assigned Patent for Efficient SSL/TLS Proxy Centripetal Networks, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been assigned a...
Fear of those nasty radio waves drives 5G-limiting bill in NH
A proposed law would make it very difficult to put 5G antennas in New Hampshire because of concern about "biological symptoms from wireless radiation exposure." The bill would require new telecommunication antennas to be kept 1,640 feet, one-third of a mile, from...
We’re burning oil for electricity, like a smoggy version of Back to the Future
For most of January, New England has been reliving a piece of our past. Unfortunately, it’s a smoggy, polluting piece. During the recent cold snap, more than a tenth of the electricity generated in New England has been produced by power plants that are burning oil,...
Dartmouth asks: How come a billion years of rocks are missing?
This news item from Dartmouth College introduced me to a geological event I'd never heard of: The Great Unconformity, a "missing billion years" of geological history. New research provides further evidence that rocks representing up to a billion years of geological...
UNH study: Lightning is caused by …
By Rebecca Irelan, UNH EOS: A new study from UNH reveals a key piece of evidence that’s eluded scientists since the days of Ben Franklin’s kite experiment: how lightning actually begins within a storm cloud. Chris Sterpka, a UNH Ph.D. student studying lightning...
Diesel can replace heating oil (but you’ll pay a road tax)
A version of this story ran in 2018. It returns to the Monitor’s online most-read list during every cold snap, so what the heck, here's an updated version. There’s an option for homeowners who run out of heating oil and can’t wait for a refill, or who can’t afford to...
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