Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Dartmouth undergrad found two exoplanets
Remember when finding evidence of planets circling other stars was big, big news? Like all things scientific, it quickly became pretty routine, at least for the astrophysics set. Dartmouth reports that a physics and astronomy major who just graduated found two of them...
Today I learned: Eversource hires turtle-sniffing dogs
From Masslive: Eversource has hundreds of miles of rights of way under its Massachusetts transmission lines, where periodic clearing creates a scrub-and-brush terrain bordering grown forest. It’s an ideal home for eastern box turtles in a New England landscape...
How far did Alan Shepard hit those golf balls on the moon?
New Hampshire native Alan Shepard hit two golfs during his stint on the moon for Apollo 14. New video images show how far they went. Not all that far, despite the vacuum and low gravity. Details are here from the BBC.
Uh-oh: Mass. right-to-repair law has a real security problem
It turns out that the right-to-repair law passed in Massachusetts and uphold by courts "does essentially mean there would be no proper security controls preventing someone from remotely connecting into a car" and may not go into effect after all, although it's...
That Mass. flying car became a Chinese air taxi
Remember Terrafugia? If you're a long-time reader you do, because I wrote frequently about that Massachusetts effort to build a flying car ("roadable aircraft" was their preferred term), which basically looked like a funky Honda Civic with giant folding wings and a...
Everybody’s looking at Framingham for that district geothermal pilot
The district geothermal pilot in Framingham, Mass., that I wrote about last year has broken ground and it's getting a lot of attention. "A New Kind of Clean Energy Utility is Born in Massachusetts" is how Heatmap, an online media company covering climate news, put it...
Keeping out deer with ‘slash walls’ (very big slash walls)
Of all the problems that are plaguing New Hampshire’s forests these days, the cutest are the deer. Those deep eyes! Those big ears! That flash of white tail as they bound through a field! Who doesn’t love them? Anybody (like me) with a deer-ransacked garden,...
Doom-scrolling alternative: Loon cam
The Valley News lets us know: The Lake Fairlee Association debuted its LoonCam — believed to be the first in Vermont — at the start of the month. Mounted on 12-foot iron pole, the camera is about 60 feet offshore and focuses on a floating nest 40 feet away occupied by...
N.H. patents through June 11
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor's name.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through June 11. *** Adult Vibrator SUKI LLC, North Hampton, New Hampshire has been...
An old NH name returns as an online-only aeronautical college
State legislators have approved an new, online aviation school that bears an old New Hampshire name. The state Department of Education announced Friday that the online-only New England Aeronautical Institute has been approved to offer a bachelor’s degree in aviation....
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