Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
The most reluctantly famous mathematician from N.H. will get more famous
UPDATE: Well, this is embarrassing. I didn't realize Zhang left UNH last year and is now a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which called him a "celebrity mathematician" in making the announcement. No wonder UNH didn't send out publicity...
A messy junk drawer can kill you!!!!! (monthly clickbait quota met)
Sportswriters long ago perfected a clever trick called the “random thoughts column,” a sort of journalistic tapas bar that collects news tidbits that are greater than the sum of their parts. Since every newspaperman secretly wants to be a sportswriter, I figured I’d...
UNH to host a build-this-IoT-device-fast hackathon
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory and the UNH Connectivity Research Center will host the Smart Gadget Competition this Saturday, April 8, at 21 Madbury Drive. This one-day event – a hackathon -- will bring together UNH students, faculty, and...
A Stirling engine isn’t powering state buildings – yet
Hey, blog readers: Just so you know, subscribers to my free weekly newsletter read this piece 10 days ago. There are certain topics that create an unending fascination for a small but eager subset of the geek world. The Stirling engine is high on that list. The...
As Internet privacy laws get tossed, it’s time to say “Hello, Tor!” & maybe “Hello, VPN!”
I installed the Tor browser at home last night. I had been thinking of using this privacy & anonymizing system for a long time, at least since I wrote about the debate over whether NH libraries can support the system, but never got around to it. Now Congress and...
Did moving NH elections due to the storm affect turnout? Let’s crunch the numbers …
There's a heated debate about whether towns should have moved their state elections on March 14 due to a blizzard. About a third of them did - which is unprecedented in New Hampshire history. There may be some lawsuits as a result, so the Monitor figured we'd put some...
Firm with ties to NH textile mill is making spider-web silk from caterpillars
A company called Kraig Biocraft Laboratories in Michigan says it has cleared "a key hurdle to mass produce spider silk in Vietnam via a transgenic silkworm capable of spinning recombinant spider silk." Cool, yes, but what's the New Hampshire angle? Well, they have a...
Urine, bees, explosions: Wild YouTube videos can fight science denial
"After three decades of trying to spread the joy of science through polysyllabic newspaper columns, I’m beginning to think that I should be flushing mercury down the toilet on YouTube, instead." That's the start of my Monitor column today (you can read it here) about...
Will environmentalists’ dismay invigorate turn-out-the-lights Earth Hour?
I have always regarded Earth Hour as a mildly clever but not important gesture. Started in Sydney in 2007, it is a global event in which all are urged to turn off their lights for an hour at a certain time (8:30pm on 25 March 2017) to create a visible statement about...
Mistrust of scientists can hinder fight against Zika, says UNH study
As a confirmed skeptic, I agree that it's a good idea to not accept blindly the statements of others but to consider them and weigh the evidence when it exists. However, that is not the same thing as saying "I never believe X, period" - which is a stupidly superficial...
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