Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Biochar from North Country forests could be big business & big help to the climate
It’s hard to imagine anything less like the high-finance world of institutional bond portfolios than burying burnt wood in the ground but as Frederick Horton tells it, they’re more similar than you’d think. Horton, a Maine native who has spent a career in finance, is...
N.H. birth rates fall further due to the pandemic
When the lockdowns started there was lots of joking about how we'd see a baby boom in 9 months created by bored couples. The reality is quite different, as reported by the Concord Monitor: In December of 2020, nine months after the state’s first stay-at-home order was...
Vaccine rollout is a disaster! Vaccine rollout is a miracle!
March 18. That’s when this 65-year-old is scheduled for his first COVID vaccine. You wanted to know that, right? After all, the one conversation that everybody is having now consists of, “When are you getting vaccinated?” and “When can I get my shot?” That is...
N.H. patents through Feb. 21
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Feb. 14to Feb. 21. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for Multi-Egress Backhaul Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 10,925,099, initially filed...
Energy efficiency saves money for taxpayers – what a surprise!
Associated Press: New Hampshire has avoided over $45 million in energy costs over the last decade, according to its annual state energy report. The State of New Hampshire is one of the largest energy users in the state. Since 2004, it has been documenting total...
The changing climate is a big enough issue for a college degree all its own
If youngsters are going to fix the world they need to understand what has to be fixed – and nothing needs more fixing than the way we are altering the climate. That’s roughly the thinking behind Plymouth State University’s newest bachelor degree, an unusual program...
That spooky blue glow from nuclear plants can help treat cancer patients
Cherenkov radiation is one of those obscure-seeming things that a lot of people know exist - we've seen pictures of the blue glow emitted by nuclear plant fuel stored in pools - but are vague on details. It's caused by charged particles passing through a medium at...
Dartmouth team finds a new solar system with a ‘teen-age’ sun
By David Hirsch, Dartmouth News Service: A newly discovered planetary system will provide researchers with the rare chance to study a group of growing planets, according to research co-led by Dartmouth. The new system, named TOI 451, is made up of at least three...
N.H. wrestled with “deepfake” pornography long before the tech existed
Technology is making it very easy to create "deepfake" videos that look real and, as you'd expect if you know anything about human behavior, there are growing cases online of people using it to create pornography that appears to involve real people, almost always...
Vermont towns stop pretending that recycling is a magic free solution
"It costs money to throw out the trash, but recycling, with its halo of virtue and the value of the materials in the marketplace, was a blessed reprieve. "That has long been a fiction, as the cost of dumping garbage subsidizes the cost of recycling. But the truth will...
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