Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire

Eagles are getting so common in NH they are rubbing elbows
New Hampshire hasn’t reached its carrying capacity for bald eagles yet, but that day may not be so far off.
Worsening weather that *isn’t* due to climate change: Solar radiation in space is growing
From UNH News Service: Astronauts traveling into deep space risk being bombarded by cosmic rays . As future missions look to travel back to the moon or even to Mars, new research from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center cautions that the exposure to...
75 years of data shows two Town Meeting snowstorms in a row is unprecedented
“Unprecedented” is putting is mildly, actually. The snowstorms last year and this year were both about twice as big as any previous storm on the second Tuesday in March since records began.

New Hampshire polling places no longer warn you not to take ‘ballot selfies’
One of the most intriguing, if not vital, stories swirling around New Hampshire voting in the past four years has involved "ballot selfies", or photos of your own completed ballot that are posted online. In 2014 the state made them illegal, a modern reflection of...
As the Arctic melts, New England needs to be prepared
The unbelievable weather changes that we are seeing within the Arctic Circle - it was above freezing for a few days in darkest mid-winter, and an ice-free Arctic now seems a real possibility - appear pretty removed from New Hampshire, but not so: Shipping routes...

Seven years later, the Hooksett disks are still floating around the world
What happens when you accidentally dump 4 million plastic disks into the Merrimack River? You eventually surprise somebody on a beach in England.
Can a home woodstove make electricity?
The Alliance for Green Heat sponsors an annual competition to build a better wood stove. This year’s competition, the fourth, has an added wrinkle: Part of it “will focus on thermoelectric wood stoves that generate electricity”.

An oil refinery (!!!) was almost built on the New Hampshire seacoast
A trio of local ladies take on the the world’s richest man – and win! It sounds like a Lifetime made-for-TV movie.

We love fishers in New Hampshire – we just don’t know how many there are
In wildlife biology it’s often true that the best way to get very basic data is to to kill some of your subjects.
Here a makerspace, there a makerspace, almost everywhere a makerspace …
Concord is talking about setting up a makerspace. There are, by my count, six or maybe seven already operating in the state.