Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
‘Cap and trade’ for transportation – think RGGI for cars
New Hampshire is one of a number of states working on developing a regional cap-and-trade program - although "cap-and-invest" is the new term - for transportation. It would work sort of like RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that has helped reduce our...
The Lyme vaccine that isn’t and one that might be
For obvious reasons there is growing interest in a Lyme vaccine and growing questions about why dogs have one but people don't. The issue was covered in the NHPR podcast Patient Zero - which includes an awesome takedown of a quackish chiropractic laser treatment for...
A story about a whole bunch of ants
Giant ant mounds are a fact of life in hotter climates but we don't see them much in New England. So when somebody found a number mounds from a single colony in a forest in the town of Temple, NH, they called in an expert. You can read the resulting story from the...
Give online input for the state’s 10-year transportation plan
More bike lanes? Horses allowed on I-93? Passenger rail up to Concord? Electric buses? Wider roads? People-carrying drones? Hydrogen-powered tuk-tuks? New Hampshire wants your transportation ideas. New Hampshire Department of Transportation is seeking 5,000 state...
Study: Managed forests store more carbon, in trees and in soil
From Dartmouth News Service: A Dartmouth-led study examining carbon stocks in an actively managed mixed wood forest in New Hampshire finds that places with more trees have more carbon stored in both the trees and the soil. The findings, published in Forest Ecology and...
Winter is coming, but not as much as it used to
From UNH News Service: Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found clear signs of a decline in frost days, snow-covered days and other indicators of winter that could have lasting impacts on ecosystems, water supplies, the economy, tourism and human...
It takes longer for things to rot than you probably realize
I have two "lazy" compost piles, one for food waste and one for leaves. I throw stuff in a pile and leave it to rot in the open - no mixing, no watering, no balancing carbon/nitrogen. I've been doing this for decades, and it surprises me how long it takes some things...
Why are fungal diseases causing so much havoc?
White-nose syndrome obliterating entire species of bats. Chytridiomycosis devastating frogs and salamanders worldwide. Snake fungal disease, a devastating ailment that has just shown up in New England. The fungus carried by emerald ash borers that are wiping out all...
The art of underwater sound
A lot of art/science mashups aren't terribly impressive. They're often something along the lines of a statue that contains Erlenmeyer flasks, or a fractal picture, or a melody-free song called Quantum Uncertainty. The UNH Center for Acoustics Research and Education is...
Why is a group of loons called an ‘asylum’? It might be the Monitor’s doing
There are lots of colorful names for groups of birds - murder of crows, etc. - most of them unofficial and most of them with obscure etymologies. How about "asylum of loons", one of the terms for a grouping of this usually solitary water bird? Where did that come...
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