Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
The rare occasion when lazier is better: Mowing
From UNH News: Cutting the grass less may actually be better for the environment. Research shows that trimming the number of times you run the mower around the yard can help create more biodiverse ecosystems, reduce carbon emissions, build soil organic matter and...
Growing crops indoors in a tough, tough business, even for high-return greens
In 2018 I wrote about a company called Freight Farms that had grew lettuce for Concord's Marriott Hotel inside one of its hydroponic trailers. It was one of several indoor-crop-growing startups that garnered a lot of attention at the time. Alas, it just went bankrupt....
Hooray – NH patents are back!
The weekly list of New Hampshire-related patents has been on hold because of problems caused by Doge team's uninformed "efficiency" (ha!) drive amid federal agencies. Targeted News Service has fixed the problem. (Links to each patent can be found here, using the...
UNH students built an electric ultralight
A team of UNH undergrads built an electric ultralight plane. UNH News reports "the team worked on the aircraft over the past year - about 5,000 to 6,000 man hours - to design and build the full-scale ultralight piloted electric aircraft. All the design and...
Coldest nights are a lot less cold in Concord
Over 30 years, the average coldest temperature reached during the year in Concord - a cloudless night in mid-winter, usually - has risen more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit, one of the fastest increases in the country, reports Axios Generate. (full story here) The 30-year...
NH can now gamble with – sorry, I mean invest in – bitcoin and its cronies
A decade ago the idea that the state could invest in bitcoin would have been exciting. But years of watching cryptocurrency serve only to dodge taxes, launder money and delude small investors, providing no actual use that helps society, makes me realize it is at best...
Science on Tap to discuss soil microbes (which is more interesting than it sounds)
The SEE Science Center’s twelfth season of Science on Tap discussions concludes on Tuesday, May 13. Science on Tap events are informal discussions with local scientists and experts on a particular topic. On Tuesday the topic will be: Something’s Afoot...
If there’s a dumber purchase than bottled water, I can’t think of it at the moment
When it comes to budgeting, you can’t get much worse than bottled water. If your home is connected to “city water” then each sip you take from the plastic Flask-o-Fluid bought at WalMart costs between 1,000 and 10,000 times as much as a sip from your kitchen tap....
Another airport delay: TSA scanners don’t like the new NH license design
The system used by TSA to authenticate people’s identification is having trouble with the new design of New Hampshire drivers licenses, a design that was specifically made to meet the federal Real ID requirements for boarding airplanes. The New Hampshire Division of...
Latest sign that solar panels are important: People are stealing them
By Catherine McLaughlin, Concord Monitor: The pump system that sends water to nearly 200 plots at the Sycamore Community Garden in concord was suddenly dry. Volunteers checked on the problem and discovered the solar panels that powered the system had been stolen,...
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