Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Uh-oh – N.H. COVID cases are increasing
To be honest, back in March, I thought COVID-19 would be calming down by now. I knew the disease wouldn’t be gone – that will take effective vaccines – but I figured warm weather and months of experience would reduce its impact on our lives. Instead, the coronavirus...
They’re fighting over our coastline, however long it is
A Seacoast Online story about tensions about crowding on the state's ocean beaches starts with the line "New Hampshire’s Atlantic coastline, the smallest in New England, is just 13 miles long, or 18.5 miles if you include inlets," which made me sit up and take notice....
N.H. patents through Aug. 2
By Targeted News Service The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from July 26 to Aug. 2. *** BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Assigned Patent for Cyber Warning Receiver BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration...
N.H. COVID numbers are good – actually, make that ‘were’
On Mondays in the Concord Monitor I run a weekly update of four COVID-related measures in New Hampshire - average number of new cases, whether that number is going down, number of tests per capita and percentage of tests that are positive. If you're a regular Granite...
Flying cars are coming to NH (cont’d)
I've been reporting about New Hampshire's connection to flying cars a.k.a. roadable aircraft for almost a decade, thanks to Terrafugia developing a folding-wing car over the border in Massachusetts. It's was the topic of one of the last in-person Science Cafes in...
If I can’t protect myself from COVID with germicidal pulse cannons, how can I protect myself?
The fact that this column is named “Granite Geek’ might give you a clue about my certain bias when solving complicated problems, such as how best to keep indoor spaces safe during the pandemic. I want the solution to be geeky! Social distancing and wearing masks and...
When gas was ‘manufactured’ rather than ‘natural’
If you think about it the name "natural gas" is kind of weird. Why "natural"? Does that mean there is "unnatural gas"? The answer: Yes, although "manufactured gas" is the usual term. I have a story in today's Monitor about the days 70 years ago when Concord, like many...
Dragonfly larvae are a sentinel to measure mercury pollution
By DAVID HIRSCH, Dartmouth News: A citizen science program that began over a decade ago has confirmed the use of dragonflies to measure mercury pollution, according to a study co-authored by Celia Chen, director of Dartmouth's Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program....
UNH says drones & multispectral pictures *can* see the forest for the trees
From UNH News Service: In a new study, University of New Hampshire researchers have concluded that when assessing forest imagery collected by unmanned aerial systems, an alternative method of delineating individual forest tree crowns within those images is more...
N.H. COVID numbers still look good-ish
(This column ran Monday with data from the previous week. Different data and different analysis can produce different conclusions, as I noted in this item in the paper Tuesday.) It’s a journalistic truism that, human nature being what it is, bad news sells papers....
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