Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Spotting bacteria via near-infrared light in Keene
This is a PR release I got just before prepping the newsletter - no independent reporting. Detact Diagnostics, a Dutch-based life-sciences company that develops diagnostic tests for the health and food sector, opened its first U.S. operational laboratory in Keene, New...
Brush with COVID death makes antivaxxer change his mind
From Dartmouth Health: Treatments and mitigation strategies for COVID-19—and even the existence of the virus itself—have been questioned, condemned and politicized since 2020, due to rampant misinformation. Mark McEnnis once counted himself among the millions of...
Burlington, Vt. has seen more winter warming than any place in America
Thanks to climate change, winters are getting warmer across the country, but a new analysis of federal temperature data shows the trend is particularly strong in parts of the northeast. In fact Burlington, Vermont has seen more winter warming in the last 50 years than...
Bitcoin-related fraud trial in NH gets underway
Veteran Union-Leader reporter Mark Hayward is covering the trial of Free Keene activist Ian Freeman on money-laundering charges related to bitcoin/blockchain operations. The first story is here. Tuesday was spent choosing jurors. It's not usually worthwhile to cover...
Tale of two city road projects (tl;dr – I prefer Manchester’s to Concord’s)
Even as Concord considers the possibility of putting up with a decade of construction to tweak the big highway that cuts us in half, a smaller but more interesting transportation project is percolating in Manchester. The project, which carries the uplifting name RAISE...
Visiting a substation, a decade ago
With power substations in the news because of the attack in North Carolina - it's pretty easy to stand outside the chain-link fence and shoot out important components - I checked out my 2012 visit to a big substation in Amherst, NH. Unlike many of my stories for the...
New England power grid says “we’re good, thanks”
New England faces no obvious power problems this winter, according to an annual forecast from the group that runs the six-state electricity grid, although extreme conditions might produce requests for conservation. The group, ISO-New England, said Monday that it does...
Vermont studies whether ridgeline wind farms affect black bears
The state commissioned a study on black bears and the Deerfield wind development built in 2017 in Readsboro and Searsburg. It looked at how the bears interacted with the different phases of the development from baseline studies through the construction of the 15...
N.H. patents through Dec. 4
The US Patent Service has changed the way it reports patents and we can no longer include direct links to each patent. You can find them here, using the patent number. By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire...
Forget self-driving cars – concentrate on AM radio
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey wrote more than 20 car manufacturers, asking them to continue to have AM radios in future models, including electric vehicles. “Broadcast AM radio remains a crucial, cost-free source of news, sports, and weather, and, more importantly, is...
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