Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
How do you map three billion acres of ocean?
From UNH News Service: The University of New Hampshire is one of five ocean science institutions chosen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over the next five years to explore an estimated three billion acres of U.S. ocean territory as part...
It’s time I stopped patting myself on the back for recycling
The collapse of the American recycling industry has made me face what has been true all along: Recycling is a band-aid at best and a distraction at worst. This is depressing because I've been something of a recycling rock star and feeling very impressed with myself...
UNH finds new strain of canine distemper in wild animals here
From UNH News Service: A distinct strain of canine distemper virus, which is a widespread virus of importance to wildlife and domesticated dogs, has been identified in wild animals in New Hampshire and Vermont, according to pathologists with the New Hampshire...
Citizen science study: Ticks are dangerous all year – plus, a new disease
A citizen-science study based in Plymouth has found what appears the be New Hampshire’s first case of a new tick-borne disease and also produced some unwanted news: Tick bites are dangerous all year round. The first year of research by the nonprofit BeBop Labs has...
When is a tiny house not a tiny house? When it’s (maybe) an in-law apartment
I've written a lot lately about the state's housing crunch and the possibility that alternative buildings can help. (I think the most recent story - read it here - is the most interesting, because it tries to find causes for a housing shortfall when our population is...
Yes, it has been wet – Edgar Allen Poe edition
The National Weather Service says that Concord - the site of its official weather station - had “measurable precipitation” on 19 of April’s 30 days, the most on record. Previously, the biggest number of rainy days in the month of April was 17 – and that was clear back...
Mapping swampy, boggy places is easier if you just fly over them
From NH Fish and Game: The staff at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Greenland, NH, working in partnership with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management are mapping the Great Bay in a new way. Experts...
N.H. values privacy – does that include our biometric information?
Thanks to technology, it is becoming possible to identify individuals through recordings of the way they walk, the pattern of blood vessels on the back of their eyes, even the way in which they strike a keyboard while typing, not to mention the vast trove of unique...
Possible geek laws for New Hampshire – an update
The New Hampshire legislative session is still chugging along. The hundreds of initial bills all face a multi-step process: Bills are heard by a House committee or a Senate committee which says yea or nay, then the yeas get voted on by the full House or Senate, and if...
Drug-resistant bugs, already targeted in N.H., really scare the U.N.
The evolution of resistance to antibiotics by various pathogens has worried the medical field for years. As I noted back in March, state health officials have been holding unusual symposiums that gather nurses, doctors, veterinarians, dentists, pharmacists and others...
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