Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
PSU students part of eclipse study
Students and researchers from Plymouth State University are participating in the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, in which universities sent atmospheric balloons aloft with sensing equipment during solar eclipses. They're currently involved in the annual eclipse...
Big electric truck stop coming to de-idle diesels
New Hampshire is getting a big electrified long-haul truck stop - but not for battery electric trucks. The idea, and it's an excellent one, is that truckers can plug in their big diesel rigs while taking their mandated rest periods, getting power (and cable TV!) in...
Fewer homes heat with wood in the Northeast than in the South (?!?!?!)
The U.S. Energy Information Agency releases an annual estimate of what fuels households will use to heat over the coming winter. The latest estimate guesses that the number of people heating primarily with wood in the Northeast will fall 6% this year from last year,...
A ‘passive house’ skycraper in Boston
An 812,000-square-foot area for offices at the Winthrop Center, a mixed-use commercial and residential building in Boston, has gotten Passive House certification, apparently the first in the U.S. Comparable buildings in Boston consume 150% more energy than Winthrop...
When GMO chestnut trees arrive, as they probably will, what should we do?
When local folks who have been working to return the glorious American chestnut tree to our forest gather Saturday in Lebanon to celebrate an anniversary, there will be a big question looming overhead. What should they do when the genetically modified trees arrive?...
Dear Concord Monitor readers: Sorry about the website
If you're a Concord Monitor reader you're probably wondering what the heck is going on with our website and mobile site. What's going on is server failure and a scramble to create a new site on the fly. It's not pretty and for that we apologize; it will probably...
NH patents through Oct. 8
(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 Oct. 8. *** Payload Deployment From Aerostats LTAG SYSTEMS, LLC, Bow, New...
Devastated by PFAS, Maine farm purchased for research
A Maine farm that made national news when PFAS contamination shut it down has been purchased by the nonprofit Maine Farmland Trust, which says it is looking for partners to study the so-called “forever chemicals” on the property. Full story from the Bangor News is...
After 3 1/2 years my COVID luck (skill?) runs out
There is such a thing as a reporter getting too close to a story and, alas, I have done that with COVID-19. After 3 ½ years of reporting on the pandemic, I have finally had to face the dreaded pink line on my home COVID test. I got infected last week, presumably...
Evolution is a bitch, invasive-aquatic-weed division
Aquatic weeds that choke waterways are an increasing plague as we humans spread them willy-nilly. Sometimes natural selection contributes to the problem, as this story from the Hartford Courant reports: What scientists have found in Selden Cove and everywhere else...
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