Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Winter is hard for solar panels (specifically, mine)
Photovoltaic electricity is great stuff and we need lots more of it - but it does have shortcomings. A snowy December, when the sun is low on the horizon, has shown me (a new owner of PV rooftop panels) just how big the shortcomings can be. The chart below shows the...
Study finds wearing a helmet doesn’t help if you ski like an idiot
A major study of skiing injuries brought to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center from 35 ski areas in New Hampshire and Vermont shows that, despite what some people think, wearing a helmet doesn't make you invulnerable: One conclusion of the study: despite helmeted...
Our ranked-choice voting primary showed that some people *love* ranked-choice voting
We got 385 ballots mailed to the Monitor for our ranked-choice voting mock election - at least three times as many as I expected. Want to know more? Of course you do - so click right here and read!
How much of New Hampshire will be “hard to count” in the census?
The Center for Urban Research at City University of New York has put out an interesting mapping tool that estimates how hard it will be for the 2020 census to reach various parts of the country. The estimate is based on how many households in each area mailed back...
Think outside the box to save bats
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hs set up a sort of mini-X-Prize for ideas to help bats threatened by white-nose syndrome, the fungus that has wiped out entire populations of bats throughout the country. What's interesting about this challenge, which offers up to...
Science Cafe panelist (oh, yes, also a UNH scientist) wins big recognition
Serita Frey, professor of soil microbial ecology at the University of New Hampshire and a researcher with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, has been named one of the most highly cited researchers in the world, a distinction earned by fewer than 0.1...
On battery storage, N.H. isn’t even in the race
Check out that map reflecting the state-by-state status of battery storage, made by Greentech Media. New Hampshire's zero status puts us in the minority alongside such cutting-edge powerhouses as Mississippi and North Dakota. Pretty embarrassing for a state that likes...
Even without Pilgrim Nuclear, we’ve got enough power for a harsh winter
New England has more than enough electricity on hand even if extreme weather hits this winter, according to an estimate from the organization that runs the six-state power grid. The announcement, while not a surprise, is important because this is the first winter...
It took 14 rounds (!) but we have a winner in our ranked-choice presidential primary
Many newspaper subscribers like to cut things out of the paper and mail them to each other so perhaps it's not surprising that we got far more responses than I expected in our mock ranked-choice voting ballot of the Democratic primary. A total of 384 ballots were...
It’s that wonderful time of year when we pull teeth out of dead deer
White-tail deer hunting season is in full swing, which means that Fish and Game wardens are yanking teeth from dead deer, bears, bobcat and moose and sending them to a lab in Montana. Why are they doing that, you ask? This story from September explains all!
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