Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
A well is a hole that groundwater falls into (assuming you have groundwater left)
Whenever a drought hits, it occurs to me that the word “aquifer” fools a lot of people. Like, me. To me, the word sounds like “aqua full,” producing visions of underground lagoons into which we can drop a straw when necessary. Apparently I’m not alone in this...
NH scientists may probe the Northern Lights
Dartmouth News reports that Professor of Physics and Astronomy Kristina Lynch is on a NASA short-list for space environment missions with her plan to use shall "cube sats" to study the processes that contribute to auroras (northern and southern lights). Some of the...
We’ll never be the Saudi Arabia of cellulosic biofuel but it’s still a real thing
The field known vaguely as clean tech is full of promising ideas for clean power production that haven’t panned out, such as tidal power, concentrating solar towers and gigawatt hamster wheels. (OK, I made up that last one.) From New Hampshire’s point of view, the...
Talking about New Hampshire’s COVID response
I talked about New Hampshire's COVID-19 response with NH PBS via at-home video. Bonus: You can see a bit of my home "office" (after frantic cleanup). and see that I remember how to wear a shirt with a collar....
COVID tracking: Worrisome start to fall
A scary number showed up Sunday on my tracking of the state’s COVID-19 status: 34. It was scary because that was the two-week average of new cases and it was higher than the peak we saw during the mid-summer increase. We haven't had an average that high since June 28....
N.H. patents through Sept. 13
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Sept. 6 to Sept. 13. *** Hypertherm Assigned Patent for Disabling Plasma Arc Torches Hypertherm, Hanover, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 10,772,183, initially filed Jan....
Battery storage makes fire crews nervous, and rightly so
New Hampshire has generally been a laggard in the energy revolution - our solar and wind power are feeble at best, electric vehicle chargers aren't coming, etc. - and large-scale energy storage is no exception. There have been two proposals to build stand-alone...
Fueled by colleges (esp. UNH), state COVID cases rise
When it comes to COVID-19 in New Hampshire, for most of the summer we have been split into two groups: Nursing homes and everybody else. Right now, however, that split is better described as schools and everybody else. The switch comes about partly because the...
A ‘culvert’ is a work of art when the Shakers made it
Replacing a crossing that carries a dirt road over an unnamed brook deep in the woods is no big deal, unless the crossing was originally built by the Shakers. Then it’s practically a work of art. “We thought of doing a concrete culvert. That would be the easy thing,...
It’s been a good year for our loons
That wasn't a politics joke: I mean the bird. “The good news is we set a new record for territorial pairs of loons,” said Harry Vogel, senior biologist and executive director of the Moultonborough, N.H.-based Loon Preservation Committee. “We now have more than five...
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