Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
New Hampshire is finally getting a festival to celebrate bats (as in mammals, not baseball)
There's a festival for everything else in the world, so why not the coolest of all mammals: bats? Why not, indeed. The first New Hampshire Bat Festival will be held this Saturday, October 20, at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge. The one-day festival will have...
Updating the shallow ‘dug’ well for the modern world
Few things say “old-time New England” more than getting your water from a dug well, a 20-foot hole in the ground covered with a concrete top that pipes water into your house. But what if there was a whole type of dug well, one so new that its design has been patented?...
Drone-pilot training starts at Concord airport
Drones have begun flying at Concord Airport as operations get off the ground at the state’s first training facility for unmanned aircraft. The training facility from ArgenTech Solutions of Newmarket opened earlier this month after receiving an airspace waiver that...
The best fans are fair-weather fans, and science shows why
Are you excited about the Boston Red Sox and all the baseball-y stuff they do really well? I sure am! There’s that guy who hits it a lot, he’s great, and those guys who throw it wicked fast, I love ‘em. And what about those people who run around and catch the ball?...
Flu vaccinations among children declined last year
About two-thirds of children under 18 in New Hampshire were vaccinated against the flu last year, one of the highest rates in the country, but overall the nation seems to be backsliding on having children and teens get their flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control...
Does that vest have a 600 nanometer dominant wavelength? Must be deer season!
Hunting seasons are upon us, and New Hampshire Fish and Game is reminding hunters (and other people going into the woods) that it’s a good idea to wear blaze orange, sometimes called Hunter Orange. Humans can spot this almost-neon color a mile away but it is not...
Mass. coal plant replaced by solar and storage, sort of
The Mount Tom Power Station, a coal-fired plant in Holyoke, Mass,. shut two years ago, and now it's the site of a solar power plus storage facility. Big win, right? Well, kind of. Mount Tom had a maximum output of 163 MW and the solar plant is just 3 MW, and the...
I wish Harry Potter studied whether magic obeys the inverse-square law
The Harry Potter books are fine, of course - my kids grew up with them - but they've always bugged me for one reason: They are a perfect embodiment of "magical thinking", which is not a good thing in reality. Here's the problem: Hogwarts is one of the the premiere...
Closed landfill in north country may produce natural gas
Liberty Utilities plans to capture methane from a closed landfill in the town of Bethlehem and use it to provide natural gas to about 6,000 homes. The company said Thursday, Sept. 27, that it has applied for permission from the Public Utilities Commission to go ahead...
The state’s oldest (probably) electric car chargers are full of wasps
(If you like old electronics, check out my story about the oldest operating solar panel in New Hampshire.) Electric vehicles are all the rage these days but as far as former NHTI professor Tom Hopper is concerned, we’re a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys. He remembers...
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