Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Saving a butterfly or two amid the military aircraft
What do frosted elfin butterflies have in common with Blackhawk helicopters? Both can hover in place, maneuver erratically in flight, and are secured behind locked doors by the New Hampshire Army National Guard. That's the lead of a story about the ongoing efforts on...
The ‘baby bust’ is a disaster. It’s also our only hope.
New Hampshire Employment Security release a report recently highlighting the state's slow rate of population growth and how this is flummoxing economic systems that were created around the assumption that the number of customers and prospective employees will always...
California voters reject the tyranny of daylight saving clock changes
I stole that headline from this story on Vox, which notes that the referendum vote isn't all that significant: "The proposal simply grants the California State Legislature the power to vote to change the clocks permanently. Any changes would need to start with a...
Science Cafe NH talks about space and aliens this month
The Science Cafe New Hampshire sessions in Nashua and Concord are sort of related this month. On Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Nashua (The Riverwalk Cafe), they'll talk about SETI, or the Seach for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. What's real? What's bunkum? What should we do...
After succeeding in space, N.H. firm wants to bring carbon nanotubes down to Earth
After a company has seen its flagship product launched to Jupiter, been purchased by a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate with plenty of plans for expansion, and had NASA double down on its main contract, choosing the next step might seem a bit complicated. Here’s an...
Adding battery storage to the grid takes – sigh – regulation
ISO New England, the folks who run the six-stage power grid, had filed a proposal with FERC, the federal group that regulates electricity, for ways to integrate batteries and other fast-acting storage into its energy markets. Here's their news release, and here is...
Who will disrupt the wood stove industry? Vote!
Wood stoves are pretty old-fashioned in the era of solar power (and maybe the hydrogen economy!) But that doesn't mean they can't be improved, which is the idea of an annual contest sponsored by an industry group and held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C....
Could the ‘hydrogen economy’ be born in an abandoned mill north of the Notches?
You know what New Hampshire needs? It needs a secret system to create hydrogen gas as the ultimate clean fuel, operating inside an old mill building next to a giant power-hungry data center that might be used to mine bitcoin. Sounds improbable, yes – but we just might...
For those of us who grew up on Blatz, kiwiberry beer is hard to fathom
UNH News Service: Area residents soon will enjoy a sour fall beer made of kiwiberries that was brewed at the University of New Hampshire thanks to a new partnership between researchers with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station and the university’s new brewing...
Found in my attic: The Internet! The whole thing!
Poking through an old footlocker, I found this 1995 book, the second edition of The Whole Internet User's Guide. Such nostalgia! 1995 was the year the online world really entered public attention. I had started writing a second column for the Nashua Telegraph called...
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