Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Massachusetts’ new right-to-repair-autos law might even snag Tesla
One of the best-known electric vehicle repair people in the Northeast is Rich Benoit in Salem, Mass., a former IT guy who rode his YouTube videos about electric-vehicle repair to a national reputation. That reputation made him butt heads with famously secretive Tesla...
Dartmouth: Brain’s ‘molecular volume knob’ is a target for Alzheimer’s treatment
From Dartmouth New Service: A “molecular volume knob” that regulates electrical signals in the brain helps with learning and memory, according to a Dartmouth study. The molecular system controls the width of electrical signals that flow across synapses between...
Before heading to Everest, weather station was tested on Mt. Washington
If you're going to test a weather station to make sure it'll work on Mount Everest, where do you go? How about Mount Washington. From an article (read it here) in AMC's Outdoors magazine: They spent several hours off the side of the auto road, just above treeline,...
Old McDonald had some panels, E-I-PV-O
You can't generate millions of watts of electricity would creating some problems - nothing's perfect. Solar panels' most obvious problem is area - they have to spread out to absorb enough photons. It's easiest and cheapest to do this spreading out on flat, dry parcels...
Can a 50-year-old novel tell us anything about dealing with COVID-19?
Back when I was in middle school a lot of people were talking about a disastrous infection that had come out of an exotic place and was threatening millions of people, just like COVID-19. It had a much better name, however – The Andromeda Strain – and it was much...
Study: Switching from heating oil to local wood cuts greenhouse gasses
(Note: Turns out this refers to a study from three years ago that I covered at the time. Oops.) If Northern New England homes switched from heating by burning fuel oil to burning wood pellets or chips made in the Northeast, they'd cut their greenhouse gas emissions by...
Electric plane coming to Cape Cod-based airline
The power-to-weight ratio of batteries and electric motors doesn't seem like they'd work for aviation, but who knows: An Israeli company called Eviation says that by 2022 it will deliver a 9-passenger electric airplane to Cape Air, a small airline that connects Cape...
N.H. patents through Nov. 6
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Nov. 1 to Nov. 6 *** Hypertherm Assigned Patent for Cooling Plasma Cutting System Hypertherm, Hanover, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 10,827,600, initially filed April...
If true geothermal arrives here, it’ll have to be around Conway
Every few years attention returns to geothermal power in the U.S. - as with this excellent recent overview from Vox's David Roberts, who says it is ""poised for a big breakout." - which gives me an excuse to talk about how the Conway region is one of the most likely...
Right-to-repair expansion wins big in Massachusetts
Massachusetts has the country's best right-to-repair law, although it only cover certain aspects of automotive repair information. On Tuesday it got better: Voters overwhelmingly enlarged it by a 75% to 25% margin, which is getting close to North Korea levels of...
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