Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
N.H. bobcats have switched direction: They now roam north to south
Interesting new research from UNH using DNA from 50-year-old bobcat skulls found that bobcats' movement patterns from generation to generation have flipped: Once they were more numerous in southern parts of New England young adults headed to the less hospitable north...
Archaeology field schools in New Hampshire this summer
Feld schools coordinated by the N.H. Division of Historical Resources’ State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP), will take place this summer in Durham, Livermore Hollow and Pillsbury State Park, where the team will canoe to the survey site searching...
Can one device replace furnace, hot water heater, air conditioner and emergency generator?
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A well-known New Hampshire entrepreneur wants to create an home-sized power plant that can provide electricity, heat and hot water using a type of engine that has been around for a century but never really commercialized. Nope,...
Airbnb rooms (and hotels) may face town-by-town fees
Update: It passed the House on April 4, 209-146, It will still have to go to the state Senate and the governor's desk. Being a tourist destination can be good for business but hard on roads and other municipal services, which is why the legislature may let towns and...
The folks breeding a disease-resistant chestnut tree are fighting over GMO’s
The disagreement over genetically-modified organisms has shown up in an unexpected place: Efforts to resurrect the American chestnut tree, which was wiped out by blight last century. The American Chestnut Foundation has spent years cross-breeding a few surviving...
N.H. doesn’t even register on the national map of distributed solar power
Here in New Hampshire it feels like distributed solar power, mostly rooftop solar panels, is growing fast. Just look at this chart from the Public Utilities Commission: Whoopee, right? Well, maybe not. Check out the map at the top of this article, which shows...
Drug-resistant microbes – even scarier than climate change!
You know a problem is serious when your physicians, veterinarians, dentists, laboratory staff, medical technicians and even the occasional reporter crowd into a single room to talk about it. Resistance to antibiotics, as a Concord symposium last week demonstrated, is...
Apple’s new streaming TV service has a (small, admittedly) New Hampshire link
Among the endless free advertising - sorry, I mean technology journalism - produced out of Monday's product rollout by Apple there is a small New Hampshire connection: One of the shows being produced for Apple TV's new streaming service will be Steven Spielberg's...
Old stone walls accidentally record the shifting of magnetic north
Old-time stone walls in New England were often built along property lines and property lines were often laid out along compass directions. Ergo, they inadvertently provide a record of changing magnetic declination cause by the slow movement of magnetic north. That...
A little Sgt. Pepper’s nostalgia for us oldsters
I am ashamed that when writing a story about the Concord street department having reported 4,000 potholes in the city, I didn't think to include a "Day in the Life" parody. (slaps forehead!) Better late than never: 4,000 potholes in Concord New Hamp-shire // And...
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