Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Redesigning the power grid is no job for the faint of heart
Utilities make money by building more equipment and selling more electricity, but the amount of electricity used in New England is largely unchanged since 2005 even as the economy has grown. Such changes have led many to hope that our supply of electricity could become cleaner, more resilient and cheaper, and have led to other fears that it will become erratic, unreliable and more expensive.
Figuring out how to live up to the hopes rather than living down to the fears is driving the discussion.
Salmon aren’t returning to spawn in New Brunswick – that doesn’t bode well for New England
We’ve given up getting salmon to spawn again in the Merrimack River, and our hopes to bring them back to the Connecticut River are slim. News that they’re doing poorly in New Brunswick, where the population is more robust, is not good.
Digital ‘right-to-repair’ law may – that’s may – come to New Hampshire
A “digital electronic product repair” bill will be considered by the Legislature this year. It would require companies to do such things as provide device buyers and third-party shops with diagnostic and repair information – stuff that used to be included in instruction manuals – and also provide updates of firmware that is embedded in devices. Basically, the proposed legislation wants to keep manufacturers from doing anything that unreasonably gets in the way of you, me or an independent repair shop from fixing or tinkering with a device after it has been paid for.
Claims of sexual misconduct led to Dartmouth professors being kept off campus
Those three Dartmouth College professors told to stay off campus last week that I wondered about have been accused of sexual misconduct. Many people note that their research includes studies of sexual desire and attractiveness, so you have to wonder the connection between that and what is alleged to have happened. A journalistic note: The matter only came to light because of reporting by The Dartmouth, a student newspaper.
Computer science institute at Dartmouth establishes award for ‘speculative fiction’ (yeah, I still call it ‘science fiction’, too)
When I was younger I tried writing science fiction stories, including one where astronauts find the true Platonic Solids on the back side of an asteroid and thus all of philosophy (great set-up, I think, but it had a really lame-o ending). Maybe I should try again:...
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an archaeologist!
Drones have made it easier for Dartmouth’s Jesse Casana to do interesting archaeology, including finding things long hidden at the Shaker Village site in Enfield, but there’s a part of him which is just a little bit sorry. “It feels like cheating a little,” admitted...
Dartmouth keeps three brain-research profs off campus, cites ‘campus safety’
I'm writing this Thursday morning, so things may have changed by the time you read this - but something very weird is happening at Dartmouth, where three tenured professors in the psychology department who do brain research have been put on paid leave and had their...
The explanation for acupuncture is nonsense, but at times it might actually work
The explanations that acupuncture gives for itself - chi and all that - collapse into a puddle of silliness when examined closely, and yet acupuncture does seem to sometimes accomplish useful things, especially reducing pain. Whether something is happening at the...
The closest thing N.H. has to a Bat Cave is now closed off from prying eyes
New Hampshire doesn't have any real caves, due to our geology, but we still have some hibernaculums - places where bats gather to over-winter. One is a mine in the North Country that has become well known to frustrated spelunkers. This fall, the New Hampshire Fish and...
Science Cafe Concord about cancer is now online
If you missed the October Science Cafe, about out understanding and treatment of cancer, you can watch it online right here thanks to Concord TV. The community access channel for Concord films* each episode and puts it on their YouTube channel, so you can scroll...
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