Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Drones can replace fireworks for environmental reasons
I've never been much of a fan of fireworks - boom, bang, flash, whatever. They create quite a mess, as well. The town of Sunapee will replace them this Fourth of July with a drone show, which is interesting. The Valley News has the story (here): Town Manager Shannon...
Duckweed and microbes to cope with road runoff
Road salt runoff is a big problem in cold climates, killing all sorts of plants and making life tough for aquatic beasties. There are constant efforts to use less of it or find alternatives, like brine, but the reality is that we're going to continue dumping it on our...
Tornado or bad storm? Only the fallen trees can tell for sure
The tornado that touched down in Dublin on Sunday was unusual but far from unique since New Hampshire generally sees one or two of the twisters each year. Sunday’s storm had 90 mph winds and was the lowest category of tornado, known as EF1 on a five-point scale....
Vineyard Wind is now the biggest offshore wind farm in the U.S. (which isn’t saying much)
Vineyard Wind has snuck past South Fork Wind and is now the nation's biggest offshore wind farm, at 136 MW capacity. (South Fork is 132). Story is here. It seems like the project is a little behind schedule; it won't be up to full 800+ Mw by the end of the summer as...
Better soil health on the farm? Take that, agrichemical giant!
Changing your farming technique to improve long-term soil health is a great idea, of course, but farming is complicated enough without adding another variable to the equation, so I suspect it's done very often. A study from some Dartmouth professors found an...
We drove away the browntail moth once, why can’t we do it again?
There’s a surprising backstory to the latest nasty invasive insect to arrive in New Hampshire, the browntail moth: We already eradicated it once. But we can’t do it again. At least, we can’t do it again in the same way. The browntail moth has just been found on the...
Adding a solar farm to the grid is still a mess
The process for adding power plants to the grid, making sure that the grid operators can factor in the electricity they supply while balancing the back-and-forth of power needs and production, grew over decades to serve the old model of relatively few large plants...
NH patents through June 23
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through June 23. *** Methods and Systems for Efficient Cyber Protections of Mobile...
1 MW landfill gas project for NH
Every landfill of any size should have either solar panels or gas-to-energy systems, or both. Lebanon is installing one, which, says the Valley News, "is expected to provide 80% of the electricity used by city facilities. The remaining 20% is being provided by solar...
When Mass. 911 crashed, old fire alarm boxes still worked. Analog rules!
On Wednesday an alert went out saying that our 911 system was down - then another alert came out saying, no, it's just Massachusetts. Same thing happened in Vermont and Maine. So what happened to Massachusetts? The Boston Globe has a story (here): Massachusetts is one...
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