Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
UNH: Burning wood pellets for heat is *much* better than burning fossil fuels
The question of whether the fight against climate change is helped or hurt by burning wood rather than using other fuels is complicated. I noted in a recent column that I have become convinced that burning wood solely to produce electricity is not a good idea from a...
First-past-the-post is so old-fashioned – here comes another attempt to bring alternative voting to N.H.
As Maine continues a legal struggle over the same issue, New Hampshire legislators will soon be discussing the possibility of reinventing the voting system with ranked-choice ballots. The proposal, House Bill 1540, would allow voters in a race with more than two...
Dartmouth researchers say algae blooms may cause ALS but a new study rejects that idea
A study just released by the U.S. Geological Society is casting doubt on the idea that toxins released by cyanobacteria blooms cause or contribute to neurological disorders such as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease – an idea that has been put forward in recent years by researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, among others.
Did your internet get knocked out by that big storm? Cell phone? Are you sure?
There’s a paradox to our ever-more connected life: In some ways it’s harder to know today how storms have affected communication than it was in the days of Ma Bell and telephones connected to the wall.
Biotech company targeting kidney injury wins TechOut & a $200,000 (!) prize
TechOut, the annual competition among startups put on by the New Hampshire High Tech Council, has gotten much bigger: This year it awarded $300,000 rather than $100,000 to the two firms chosen from six finalists. The winner is Kantum Diagnostics of Concord, which is developing a “diagnostic and therapeutic combination” to prevent and treat acute kidney injury: “Years of looking through a microscope have paid off finally,” said professor Sylvie Breton, co-founder and CSO of Kantum.
More on that metaphor about the electric grid as a bathtub
Science Cafe Concord on Tuesday discussed the power grid, and how its being forced to change in the face of renewable energy, distributed energy, microgrids, storage and other technologies, all fueled by our growing worries about climate change. It was a very good...
UNH tool helps colleges keep track of how much carbon & nitrogen they produce
Thousands of institutions use a UNH tool to track their greenhouse gas emissions. The new tool lets them also track nitrogen pollution, which can hurt local water and air quality.
Free talk to discuss drones as a research tool
I recently wrote a column about researchers using drones to study archaeology in NH, but that's far from the only way scientists are using drones. They are cropping up in lots of research, from agricultural studies to creating three-dimensional models to surveying...
That disturbing video of a giant crab attacking a sea bird came from a Dartmouth researcher
The video brings out our inherent species-ism – we root for the warm-blooded creature over the invertebrate – as well as reminding us that Nature can be really, really mean.
Watching a ginko tree at UNH dump its leaves and getting a look at (yeah, you guessed it) climate change
Serita Frey, a soil microbiologist and a professor at UNH in Durham, got curious and found old data about the date that a campus ginko tree dumps its leaves in late fall. (The species famously drops all its leaves at once, like a strip tease for attention-deficit...
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