Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
The best ‘no trespassing’ sign ever – because it says ‘go ahead’
I came across this gem of a sign alongside a lovely little brook near Keene. Brilliant.
UNH gets big NASA contract to look at our coasts
UNH has received the biggest NASA award in its history - close to $108 million - for a space-based instrument that will make observations of coastal waters to help protect ecosystem sustainability, improve resource management, and enhance economic activity. The...
Where will the tree-killing beetle go? Ask an electrical engineer
Worcester, Mass., remains the nation's biggest outbreak of tree-killing Asian Longhorn Beetles. The city and neighboring towns cut down more than 35,000 trees and established a 74-square-mile quarantine area where wood can't be moved as part of a massive program that...
For a while on the N.E. grid, coal outdid solar & wind combined
For a while on Tuesday, July 30, there was more coal-fired electricity on the New England grid than power from solar panels and wind turbines, combined. (When I took the above screenshot, solar and wind each made up about one-ninth of the "renewables" pie slice. Most...
Boston-area TV stations are shifting to make room for mobile data
Many Boston-area TV stations are shifting their spot on the airwaves this week, requiring people who use over-the-air antennas to rescan their television sets to find them again. WMUR-TV in Manchester is not among the stations that will be changing this week....
For online reviews, it’s ‘in mobile we trust’
How do you know which online reviews are real, honest opinions, and which ones are just propaganda or hidden advertising? A Dartmouth researcher found that one cue people use, probably unconsciously, is whether the review was written on a smartphone, or typed at a...
Humans will never colonize Mars
There's no New Hampshire angle to this one, except for throwing cold water on all the hard science fiction fans in the state who dream of terraforming Mars. But I'm going to point to this piece on Gizmodo: "Humans will never colonize Mars" - because it's interesting...
UNH veterinary lab finds a new virus in chimney swifts
(I profiled this lab when it opened in 2015 in this article.) From UNH News Service: Pathologists with the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire have identified the first reported virus in chimney swifts, an adenovirus...
Biochar in Vermont
Biochar, which is sort of like charcoal,- is one of those products that seems too good to be true. Basically you burn low-grade wood in an enclosed space (pyrolysis) to create a substance that is praised as a soil amendment and eyed as a way to take carbon from the...
If the tree won’t go to the ultrasound, the ultrasound must go to the tree
How do you know whether a tree is rotten inside and might fall on your building? The same way you know whether humans are rotten inside: do an ultrasound. For more details, check my story in today's Monitor.
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