That boom which rattled southern N.H. and surrounding areas late Sunday morning now seems very likely to have been a meteor exploding, probably just a few tens of miles up. You may have seen the above picture from the GOES-16 satellite Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which shows a flash where no storms were causing any lightning at around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Pretty conclusive.

(Something I learned from all these stories: a flash from an exploding meteoroid, which is the official term for rock in space before it burns up, is called a “bolide.” Now you know.)

One question I had is why most meteoroids burn up rather than explode. Part of the issue, I found after online exploration (“I did my research!” sounds much less impressive than it used to) is that meteoroids come from different sources: often they result from collisions of rocky asteroids, sometimes they’re bits of icy debris shed by comets, very occasionally they’re a piece of the moon or other planet knocked off by a meteor and captured by our gravity field. So they’re made of different material and enter the atmosphere at various speeds and angles, meaning they respond differently to the heat of re-entry.

It turns out that researchers at Purdue University and elsewhere looked into what makes them explode rather than burn up. (Here’s the university press release, with links to the research). Here’s the tl;dr summary:

When a meteor comes hurtling toward Earth, the high-pressure air in front of it seeps into its pores and cracks, pushing the body of the meteor apart and causing it to explode.

.

“There’s a big gradient between high-pressure air in front of the meteor and the vacuum of air behind it,” said Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University and co-author of the paper. “If the air can move through the passages in the meteorite, it can easily get inside and blow off pieces.”

So, being properly paranoid, Kamen is already fretting that the still-wet-behind-the-ears biofabrication industry (building body parts, from skin to organs to muscle and bone, to help patients) that is being created around the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in the Millyard is going to be left in the dust by other regions. He made this pitch to New Hampshire Business Review in this article, which says “the grand plan inventor Dean Kamen has for ARMI, is to make Manchester and its surrounding communities the hub of a predicted global biofabrication boom — the regenerative manufacturing equivalent of Silicon Valley.”

A little hyperbolistic, perhaps, but not unrealistic.

The article includes many of the pro-NH traits often cited by boosters (we’re cheapskates but we’re nimble! we’re close to Boston! there are tax benefits!). Whether they’ll be enough to keep researchers, startups and industry spinoffs from moving to bigger lands as the technology developers is hard to say

In the most unlikely of places – a hilly park overlooking downtown Manchester with as much broken glass and graffiti as trees and boulders – a small part of the world’s ecological crisis is about to play out.

If studies of samples from Mexico confirm what is suspected, botanists will soon announce the official extinction of an inconspicuous plant with the inconspicuous name of smooth slender crabgrass that once lived only in Rock Rimmon Park. It will be the first plant from New Hampshire and only the fourth in New England to be added to the grim and growing list of species that have been wiped off the face of the planet. 

“It will be presumed extinct, that’s the term we use,” said Bill Nichols, a botanist with the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau, during a tour Thursday of Rock Rimmon Park on the west side of Manchester. “You can’t prove it 100%. We hope that maybe on some outcrop in Maine, it might be discovered.” 

That’s a slim hope. As far as anybody can tell, this species (Digitaria filiformis var. Laeviglumis) existed only in 140-acre Rock Rimmon Park, which rises 350 feet above the Merrimack River and is a surprising hotbed of plant diversity partly because of its geology that led to different levels of soil acidity. The park supports at least 10 vascular plant species at risk of extinction.

First seen and named here in 1899, smooth slender crabgrass was last officially collected in 1931 and has not been found since despite 25 botanical surveys, including 11 specifically looking for it. Nichols himself has been part of a half-dozen of them.

The only obstacle to declaring this plant globally extinct is confirmation that it is a distinct species from a similar crabgrass found in Mexico and Venezuela. That will be the call of Dr. Joseph Wipff, a renowned grasslands botanist, backed up by DNA analysis from Dr. Erin Sigel, collections manager at UNH’s Hogdon Herbarium. Nichols, who was checking his email Thursday to see if the report has come in, expects that they will declare the 90-year-old Rock Rimmon samples as a species all its own, although a species that no longer exists.

The loss of one type of small thin grass that looks almost exactly like many other types of small thin grass growing amid the boulders at one city park may not seem important, but the gathering of botanists and ecologists from state agencies and environmental groups for Thursday’s tour said that’s a mistaken belief.

“It’s hard to get people as excited about crabgrass as rhinos, but it’s just as important,” said Sean O’Brien, leader of NatureServe, an organization that supports biodiversity conversation efforts by groups and governments throughout the country. He was in Manchester as part of a national visit of sites to improve communication and connections among such efforts.

O’Brien cited a famous 1991 essay by scientist Paul Erlich that compared species to rivets on an airplane. “You can remove a rivet and another rivet and it won’t do anything but if you remove the wrong one, the wing will fall off,” he said. “We don’t know which (species) is that rivet.”

For himself, Nichols cautioned people not to be fooled by the small size of plants like smooth slender crabgrass, which can be differentiated from some other species only by examining it with a magnifying glass. Having a mix of what seem to be nondescript weeds is just as important to the environment as having a mix of different types of maple trees.

As for the surprising location of the rare plant, O’Brien also said it’s not uncommon for species to exist only in urban parks, citing examples he had recently encountered in Raleigh, N.C. Although such parks don’t seem very wild, he said, they are better studied and taken care of than remote locations so if they happen to have been created around a rare species, that species is more likely to be found and preserved. 

As was probably inevitable with a tour built around extinction featuring people experienced with the ecological ravages of climate change, invasive species and habitat loss, Thursday’s discussion turned gloomy at times. New Hampshire has about 1,400 known native plant species and about 400 of them, well over a quarter, are being tracked as endangered or threatened.

But, the group noted, there are also successes – such as the northeastern bulrush, a sedge found in New Hampshire that was recently taken off the federal endangered species list as its population rebounded.

And in a telling reminder that it is possible to undo the damage of the past, as the group gathered in preparation for the hike up to the crest of Rock Rimmon, a big handsome bird flew directly overhead.

It was a bald eagle.

Down the road near Boston, Tufts University is thinking about it. Tufts has been awarded $10 million over five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems program to establish the National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, “a flagship American cultivated protein research center of excellence.” (Love that phrase, “cellular agriculture”)

From the press release:

Tufts University Professor David Kaplan, a renowned cultivated meat expert, will lead the initiative and will be joined by investigators  from Virginia Tech, Virginia State, University of California-Davis, MIT, and University of Massachusetts-Boston. The new institute will “develop outreach, extension, and education for the next generation of professionals” in cellular agriculture and lead research that will help to expand the menu of climate-friendly protein options and improve food system resilience.

There are good reasons to be dubious that lab-grown food can scale to any significant size. A guy named Joe Fasler at TheCounter.org had a good, detailed write-up of why he’s doubtful, noting that the process is similar to well-established processes used to manufacture vaccines. Read the whole thing here.

But we can’t know for sure unless we try – hence the Tufts institute.

By the way, this is distinct from meat-like foods made from plants such as Impossible Burgers. Those have different constraints.

When you’re an archaeologist, you know that there are rocks and then there are rocks. In his new book, Robert Goodby, a professor of anthropology at Franklin Pierce University, talks about a few that his team uncovered in 2009.

“We were in this quiet pine forest, dead level. Aside from tree roots it is an archaeologists’ dream: soil is dry, goes right through the screen – you almost don’t have to shake it,” said Goodby, discussing a dig at the site of what is now Keene Middle School. “All of a sudden we hit something that didn’t belong there. There were stones, just normal New Hampshire stones, (in size) from maybe a cherry tomato up to a softball … that had come from somewhere else, probably a stream bed.”

The intriguing thing about those rocks? “They were more or less in a line.”

The significance of this orientation didn’t come out until later when the archaeology team was analyzing all the data found at the site, including scores of stone tools, flakes from tools being made or shaped, and several collections of burnt bones, indicating the location of cooking fires.

One of the biggest problems facing our understanding of pre-Contact life in New England is that the people who entered this region after the glaciers receded 15,000 years ago did not create buildings out of stone, unlike cultures in the American Southwest or Central and South America.

Their houses, either long-term or transitional, ceremonial buildings and  gathering  places were made of woodland materials that rotted away centuries ago, leaving no trace. That’s a big part of the reason many of us think Native American culture was thin here and quickly eliminated by settlers, and why we don’t think much about it.

Goodby says that once a map of all the items from the Keene site was put together, it became obvious the stones had been pushed against the wall of a tent or tipi while people lived there, probably for one hunting season. Left behind when the family or families moved on, they and other stones accidentally marked out living quarters from millennia ago.

“When we put all the maps together, we could see the position, relative to the walls of the house,” Goodby said. “Then we could really zero in and ask questions. … How does tent no. 1 compare to tents 2, 3, and 4. It is an insight into the social life from the very first people to come into New Hampshire,” he said.

“(Archaeology and anthropology) is not treasure hunting; it’s about making connections. The reason people get into this business is not to find really neat artifacts … it’s to find something like the maps that lets you do that sort of time travel when walking into someone’s life, see something about their lives.”Looking at 13 millennia (and counting) of New Hampshire’s original residents

This story is one of many in “Deep Presence: 13,000 years of Native American presence,” the first book for a general audience by Goodby, 59, who has been doing local archaeological research with his Franklin Pierce students for two decades.

The 125-page book centers on four archaeological sites in the Monadnock Region where Goodby and his students worked, including one that did involve a stone structure which survives to this day, although it’s not a building but a V-shaped dam in the Ashuelot River.

Aside from providing a chatty but detailed look at how archaeology actually works in New Hampshire – including the surprising insight that “sites rich in artifacts are often less revealing than smaller, ephemeral sites where you can clearly see single points in time” –  it carries a deeper message: There was far more culture and people in New Hampshire before Europeans arrived than most of us realize, and the people and the culture are still here even if we’ve largely ignored or erased them.

“These people had a fully developed society as much as you or me or anybody … thousands of years ago. They lived in a complicated world, they had abstract understanding,” he said. “We have a tendency to use that term ‘civilization’ to describe any society that looks like us, but it’s more than that.”

The last chapter of the book, “Suvival, Resistance, Renaissance,” shows this deep history continues today. It deals with ways that Abenaki have had to work to stay in the Monadnock region, from putting down “white” on census forms to struggling for federal tribal recognition.

“There are many reasons for the near-invisibility of Native Americans in northern New England. Some of these have to do with the nature of the archaeological record they left behind, some are attributable to the erasure of Native history by the conquering culture, and some come from the survival strategies used by the Abenaki people to hide their identity from a hostile outside world and sometimes even from their own children,” he writes.

“A Deep Presence” was just released by Peter E. Randall Publisher in Portsmouth, with support from several historical and philanthropic groups. It is available at a number of local bookstores and through the publisher’s website. 

The projects range from using state-of-the-art instrumentation to determine components that help build soil organic matter, to increasing soil microbes’ ability to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer, to understanding how plants extract nutrients from soil organic matter.

The grants awarded to Stuart Grandy, professor of soil biogeochemistry and fertility, and colleagues were born from the results of recent research funded by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station in the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.

This research investigated soil organic matter’s molecular makeup and affinity for minerals, and its potential to support plant growth in a reliable way that can moderate some of the stresses of climate change.

The work is taking in place, in part, at the experiment station’s Kingman Research Farm to help regional growers achieve better fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency. Another component of the research will support efforts to understand contaminants associated with the application of biosolids to Granite State fields.

“With these new resources, we can keep pushing the envelope on critical questions in soil sustainability research by integrating observations on soil organic matter from multiple angles: molecular, microbial, mineral, and ecological,” Grandy said.

“Understanding soil organic matter from these angles is the key to developing more nutrient-efficient cropping systems that do not lose nitrogen and phosphorous to the environment. Soil organic matter also stores carbon, helping to reduce in the atmosphere the concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.”

Grandy, Paula Mouser, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and David Needle, senior pathologist with the UNH Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, have received a two-year USDA equipment grant for $323,025 to purchase an ultra-high-performance high resolution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry instrument.

This newly acquired high-precision instrument, which will be housed at the University Instrumentation Center Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, will allow scientists to conduct research at the molecular level.

With it, scientists will be able to pinpoint which organic inputs contain components that endure in soil and contribute to building soil organic matter. This instrument will also be used by Mouser and others to measure organic contaminants in soil.

Measuring soil organic matter and its nutrients is the goal of a private grant supporting the work of Grandy and Serita Frey, professor of soil microbial ecology, to trace how agricultural fertilizers that can quickly drain out of soils might have more staying power.

Such linkages between nutrients and soil minerals could provide plants — such as growing crops — a store of rations they can dip into throughout the season. The $446,000 grant was awarded by the Ag Spectrum Company.

Finally, how exactly plants can make withdrawals of nutrients from soil organic matter is the subject of a project between Grandy and Andrea Jilling, Grandy’s former student who is now an assistant professor of environmental soil chemistry at Oklahoma State University. The project is funded by a three-year $260,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

These new resources support Grandy’s immediate research group, the Soil Biogeochemistry and Fertility Lab, as well as the students and researchers with the UNH Center for Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology, co-directed by Grandy, Jessica Ernakovich, assistant professor of natural resources and the environment, and Frey.

This was done as a publicity stunt (a successful one, judging from this article) by QuoteWizard, a company that compares insurance rates. (I get at least one pitch a week from places that put together bits of data about whatever-you-want and then rank cities or states, producing a breathless press release about the results and please link back to our company website.)

QuoteWizard says it “analyzed 2021 data from millions of insurance quotes from drivers in each state” out of its database, then “used a composite ranking system to rank each city for their rate of incidents.” Yes, the website FAQ says “city” even though it is ranking states, which may indicate something about their level of detail. 

The company ranked Maine drivers as 18th best among states, Vermont in the middle and Massachusetts, you won’t be surprised to hear, near the bottom.

By the way, I personally am a superb driver.

The following federal patents were awarded in New Hampshire from Oct. 3 through Oct. 10 .

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Magic Leap Assigned Patent for Multi-Depth Plane Display System with Reduced Switching Between Depth Planes

Magic Leap, Plantation, Florida, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,138,793, initially filed Feb. 10, 2017) developed by four co-inventors for a “multi-depth plane display system with reduced switching between depth planes.” The co-inventors are Nicole Elizabeth Samec, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Nastasja U. Robaina, Coconut Grove, Florida, Christopher M. Harrises, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Mark Baerenrodt, Delray Beach, Florida.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,138,793.PN.&OS=PN/11,138,793&RS=PN/11,138,793


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Magic Leap Assigned Patent for Automatic Control of Wearable Display Device

Magic Leap, Plantation, Florida, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,138,436, initially filed Nov. 17, 2017) developed by nine co-inventors for “automatic control of wearable display device based on external conditions.” The co-inventors are James M. Powderly, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Savannah Niles, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Nicole Elizabeth Samec, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Ali Amirhooshmand, Washington, Nastasja U. Robaina, Coconut Grove, Florida, Christopher M. Harrises, Nashua, New Hampshire, Mark Baerenrodt, Millbrae, California, Carlos A. Rivera Cintron, Lake Worth, Florida, and Brian Keith Smith, Wellington, Florida.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,138,436.PN.&OS=PN/11,138,436&RS=PN/11,138,436


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Sigma Labs Assigned Patent for System for Monitoring Additive Manufacturing Processes

Sigma Labs, Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,135,654, initially filed May 18, 2018) developed by four co-inventors for a “method and system for monitoring additive manufacturing processes.” The co-inventors are Vivek R. Dave, Concord, New Hampshire, R. Bruce Madigan, Butte, Montana, Mark J. Cola, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Martin S. Piltch, Los Alamos, New Mexico.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,35,654.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,35,654&RS=PN/1,11,35,654


***
Avent Assigned Patent for System, Method for Independent, Simultaneous Control of Multiple Radiofrequency Probes

Avent, Alpharetta, Georgia, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,135,003, initially filed July 13, 2018) developed by seven co-inventors for a “system and method for independent or simultaneous control of multiple radiofrequency probes during an ablation procedure.” The co-inventors are Lisa M. McGregor, Chamblee, Georgia, Lee Rhein, Hollywood, Florida, Tyler W. Crone, Atlanta, Georgia, Joseph A. Cesa, Franklin, Massachusetts, Christopher W. Thurrott, Townsend, Massachusetts, Morgan Rudolph, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Scott Woodruff, Chicago, Illinois.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,35,003.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,35,003&RS=PN/1,11,35,003


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Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings Assigned Patent for Fire Notification Device with Integrated Environmental Node Sensor

Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,137,159, initially filed Sept. 11, 2019) developed by two co-inventors for a “fire notification device with integrated environmental node sensor.” The co-inventors are Richard A. Koss, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and Joseph Piccolo III, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,37,159.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,37,159&RS=PN/1,11,37,159


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Cold Chain Technologies Assigned Patent for Method for Maintaining Temperature-Sensitive Materials

Cold Chain Technologies, Franklin, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,137,190, initially filed June 28, 2019) developed by Peter Martino, Danbury, New Hampshire, for a “method and system for maintaining temperature-sensitive materials within a desired temperature range for a period of time.”\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,137,190.PN.&OS=PN/11,137,190&RS=PN/11,137,190

***

We live in a place that assumes a limitless supply of water but as climate changes and weather patterns shift, will this remain viable? What do we know future patterns and what should we do to prepare? How can we tell exceptions from trends?

Join the discussion at Science Cafe NH on Wednesday, October 20, from 7-8 PM ET. Connect via Facebook Live (where you can ask questions) or YouTube (where you can’t) – the links will be placed at sciencecafenh.org.

If you think of a question but want me to ask it, email it to dbrooks@cmonitor.com by next Tuesday.

Suggestions or comments? Drop me a line: dbrooks@cmonitor.com

Keep up with Science Cafe NH at sciencecafenh.org.

(This column ran in September 2020; time to recycle it!)

It’s that time of year again, when everybody says, “The leaves are changing earlier than usual!”

This year the supposed culprit behind early leaf-peeping is the drought, which continues to be very serious throughout New England. Drought is a stress, and stress could cause trees to hunker down for winter sooner than usual.

It certainly seems plausible that they could be shutting down leaf photosynthesis so chlorophyll disappears and the underlying colors show up earlier than usual.

Plausible, but is it true?

It’s hard to measure widespread leaf color change, of course. UNH once had a program where aerial photos were subjected to color analysis in an attempt to quantify foliage season and see whether climate change was affecting it, but funding ended and I don’t believe it has been kept up.

(ADDENDUM: Here’s a 2015 column talking about that research, which had ended several years earlier.)

However there is another historical source: A site called FoliageNetwork.com.

From 2008 through 2019, this site gathered reports and photos from volunteers and compiled them into a weekly foliage map. Unfortunately, they stopped doing it this year – not enough volunteers, the site says – but unlike all the other foliage trackers I can find, they have left up the old reports.

So the Monitor downloaded the 10 most recent years to see what their volunteers said about leaf color in the general Concord area in the weekly report closest to Sept. 29.

The result?

Last year Foliage Network said we were on the border of moderate to low color change; the four years prior to that we were low color or even very low, with southern New Hampshire still green; the three years before that (2012 through 2014) we were showing moderate color and high color was just up the road; while 2011 was low and 2010 was moderate bordering on high.

Because we don’t have a 2020 report we can’t know how Foliage Network would judge this year but I’d say it’s definitely moderate, bordering on high. There are a lot of bright leaves out there.

If so, we’re changing color earlier than in six of the last 10 years and at roughly the same time as the other four.

So now if somebody tells you that leaves are changing earlier than usual, you have an answer: “That is 60 percent correct.”

How much are online bragging rights to “Live Free or Die” worth? A billion dollars?

Matthew St. Onge thinks that’s as good a guess as any, and he’d like New Hampshire to have a piece of it. Plus he wouldn’t mind a little bit for himself.

The Concord resident has suggested that the state government should start selling official versions of the newest and most unusual of investment items: non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

These digital files, roughly equivalent to having a certificate of authenticity about something but not control of it, have taken the investing world by storm. Everybody from famous painters to Twitter stars to National Basketball Association teams are selling NFTs, sometimes for millions of dollars. Why not New Hampshire?

“I saw the NBA was selling little videos, people were trading them. I thought we could do that,” said the Concord resident. “New Hampshire has so many cultural items that people would pay for.”

St. Onge has sent a proposal to the governor and Executive Council showing how it could work, and put a version on the Concord Patch website.

Using examples from the NBA and OpenSea, an NFT auction house, he created a dummy website showing how New Hampshire could have a digital marketplace selling NFTs related to things with widespread appeal such as our state slogan, Tuckerman Ravine or the Old Man of the Mountain, as well as items of very focused interest.

“My favorite thing would be to buy a black diamond trail at Mount Sunapee. As a kid, you ski that trail, you remember it. It’s a high value to me, maybe not to others,” he said.

The files associated with the NFT would be as handsome as a digital designer could make them and stamped as official versions from the state for display.

Because of the digital nature of an NFT and its connection to the distributed ledger known as blockchain, New Hampshire would make money not just from the first sale of the NFT but from any subsequent sale. This is why NFTs have become popular with artists, who can profit when their work is resold.

“This marketplace will take on a life of its own. We just have to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of it!” ends his presentation, which includes the guess that “Live Free or Die” might draw a 10-digit price.

No official response has yet come, he said.

St. Onge is offering the idea freely although he wouldn’t mind making a little money out of it. Perhaps, he said, any sales by the state could be counted against his future taxes.

It can be hard for some people to get their head around the concept of non-fungible tokens. St. Onge, who is 53 and not any sort of computer programmer, admits it took him some effort even though he owns some bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that is also listed on the blockchain.

For an NFT, a “token” is a term for a listing on the global blockchain and “non-fungible” means it can’t be swapped for another token of equal value. So an NFT is a digital asset that cannot be altered and that has information about its ownership stored permanently and transparently on the blockchain network.

Because of that record each NFT is unique and unchangeable, even if the item that it points to can be reproduced endlessly.

“I think baseball cards are the most equivalent thing,” St. Onge said. Owning a baseball card doesn’t mean you own the player on it and doesn’t prevent many other people from owning an identical baseball card, yet people still value them.”

Owning the NFT of something, such as a picture of New Hampshire’s state bird, the purple finch, doesn’t mean you own the bird or even the picture. It also doesn’t prevent others from having that exact same picture since NFTs don’t carry copyright protection. But you’d be the only owner of the official state NFT about the purple finch.

Similarly, if New Hampshire created an official “Live Free or Die” token and you purchased it, anybody in the world could look at the blockchain and see that you were the official owner of the NFT of one of the best-known government mottos on the planet. Nobody else could say that. 

But everybody else could still say “live free or die,” or emboss the phrase on a dishtowel and sell it at a farmer’s market, or use it on their campaign website while running for cemetery trustee. And it would still go on license plates. There would be, in fact, no practical effect to the purchase except that you would be the only person in the world to own the slogan’s official NFT.

That doesn’t sound like much value in traditional markets but it hasn’t kept NFTs from becoming a multi-billion-dollar market in what seems like no time. NFTs are even seen by some as a small but representative part of a digital revolution coming to all aspects of finance that could change economic practices as basic as spending, lending and ownership.

“They were seeing what kind of feedback it would get while out in public” says the very short story, with a photo. Check it out here.

Improving biological agents is hard but important. UNH News Service has a story about research at the school trying to improve use of beneficial microbes with a natural compound called chitosan—a byproduct of mostly shrimp shells from the seafood industry – to fight apple scab, a devastating disease of fruit trees.

Widespread adoption of biopesticides, however, has been limited due to inconsistencies in their effectiveness. “Because biopesticides are living products, their activity is affected by environment. Biopesticides often fail to grow and maintain high enough population levels in the orchard or do not produce antifungal compounds at levels necessary to suppress the disease.

Read the whole story here.

The following patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.

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SET North America Assigned Patent for 3D Packaging with Low-Force Thermocompression Bonding of Oxidizable Materials

SET North America, Chester, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,134,598, initially filed March 1, 2013) developed by Eric Frank Schulte, Santa Barbara, California, for “3D packaging with low-force thermocompression bonding of oxidizable materials.“\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,34,598.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,34,598&RS=PN/1,11,34,598

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Position Imaging, Assigned Patent for Spatial Diveristy for Relative Position Tracking

Position Imaging, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,132,004, initially filed June 14, 2019) developed by four co-inventors for “spatial diveristy for relative position tracking.” The co-inventors are Edward L. Hill, Conway, New Hampshire, Brett Bilbrey, Sunnyvale, California, Harry Lee Deffebach III, Melbourne Beach, Florida, and Krenar Komoni, Worcester, Massachusetts.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,32,004.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,32,004&RS=PN/1,11,32,004

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U.S. Foundation for Inspiration & RECOG Assigned Patent for Systems, Methods for Remotely Controlled Device Position, Orientation Determination

U.S. Foundation for Inspiration and RECOG, Manchester, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,131,747, initially filed March 31, 2011) developed by two co-inventors for “systems and methods for remotely controlled device position and orientation determination.” The co-inventors are Chris P. Jennings, Merrimack, New Hampshire, and James R. Rahaim, Amherst, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,31,747.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,31,747&RS=PN/1,11,31,747

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Sig Sauer Assigned Patent for Handgun Slide with Embedded Sight Assembly

Sig Sauer, Newington, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,131,526, initially filed June 11, 2020) developed by four co-inventors for a “handgun slide with embedded sight assembly.” The co-inventors are Jacob Thomas Shawley, Somersworth, New Hampshire, Phillip H. Strader Jr, Stratham, New Hampshire, Trevor Eaton, South Hampton, New Hampshire, and Jesse Cole, Newmarket, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,31,526.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,31,526&RS=PN/1,11,31,526

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Wilcox Industries Assigned Patent for Modular Barrel System, Method for Its Manufacture

Wilcox Industries, Newington, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,131,518, initially filed Jan. 11, 2018) developed by two co-inventors for a “modular barrel system and method for its manufacture.” The co-inventors are James W. Teetzel, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Jared Majcher, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,31,518.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,31,518&RS=PN/1,11,31,518

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LTAG Systems Assigned Patent for Controlling Lifting Gas in Inflatable Structures

LTAG Systems, Bow, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,130,557, initially filed Sept. 8, 2020) developed by two co-inventors for “controlling lifting gas in inflatable structures.” The co-inventors are Alexander H. Slocum, Bow, New Hampshire, and Jonathan T. Slocum, Bow, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,30,557.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,30,557&RS=PN/1,11,30,557

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Bauer Hockey Assigned Patent for Hockey Skate Including One-Piece Frame with Integral Pedestals

Bauer Hockey, Exeter, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,130,044, initially filed Dec. 12, 2019) developed by four co-inventors for a “hockey skate including a one-piece frame with integral pedestals.” The co-inventors are Stephen J. Davis, Van Nuys, California, David Perreault, Laval, Canada, Dmitry Rusakov, Montreal, Canada, and Ian Fung, Van Nuys, California.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,30,044.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,30,044&RS=PN/1,11,30,044

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Atrium Medical Assigned Patent for Chest Drainage System

Atrium Medical, Merrimack, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,971, initially filed Jan. 4, 2019) developed by two co-inventors for a chest drainage system. The co-inventors are Wolfram Grziwa, Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, and Greg Peatfield, Atkinson, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,971.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,971&RS=PN/1,11,29,971

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Deka Assigned Patent for Syringe Pump, Related Method, System

Deka, Manchester, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,933, initially filed Oct. 2, 2018) developed by nine co-inventors for a “syringe pump, and related method and system.” The co-inventors are Dean Kamen, Bedford, New Hampshire, Larry B. Gray, Merrimack, New Hampshire, Jesse T. Bodwell, Manchester, New Hampshire, John M. Kerwin, Manchester, New Hampshire, Michael J. Baier, Dunbarton, New Hampshire, Dirk A. van der Merwe, Canterbury, New Hampshire, Stephen L. Fichera, Salem, New Hampshire, Jonathan R. Thurber, Deerfield, New Hampshire, and Martin D. Desch, Newburyport, Massachusetts.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,933.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,933&RS=PN/1,11,29,933

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Deka Assigned Patent for Fluid Container Devices, Methods, Systems

Deka, Manchester, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,772, initially filed June 5, 2019) developed by four co-inventors for “fluid container devices, methods and systems.” The co-inventors are Akshay R. Kamdar, Zionsville, Indiana, Daniel M. Hartmann, Arlington, Massachusetts, Gavin M. McKeown, Bedford, Massachusetts, and James A. Davies, Upper Cambourne, United Kingdom.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,772.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,772&RS=PN/1,11,29,772

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Trustees of Dartmouth College Assigned Patent for Surgical Navigation with Stereovision, Associated Methods

Trustees of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,562, initially filed Feb. 10, 2020) developed by five co-inventors for a “surgical navigation with stereovision and associated methods.” The co-inventors are David W. Roberts, Lyme, New Hampshire, Keith D. Paulsen, Hanover, New Hampshire, Alexander Hartov, Enfield, New Hampshire, Songbai Ji, Hanover, New Hampshire, and Xiaoyao Fan, Lebanon, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,562.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,562&RS=PN/1,11,29,562

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Felton Assigned Patent for Conveyance Belt for High Speed Planting of Seeds

Felton, Londonderry, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,325, initially filed June 28, 2019) developed by two co-inventors for “conveyance belt for high speed planting of seeds.” The co-inventors are Donald James Marler III, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and Marc Godin, Manchester, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,325.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,325&RS=PN/1,11,29,325

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Rockwell Automation Technologies Assigned Patent for Triangulation Applied as Safety Scanner

Rockwell Automation Technologies, Mayfield Heights, Ohio, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,125,860, initially filed Sept. 29, 2017) developed by nine co-inventors for a “triangulation applied as a safety scanner.” The co-inventors are Richard Galera, Nashua, New Hampshire, Anne E. Bowlby, Lowell, Massachusetts, Derek W. Jones, Galloway, United Kingdom, Nilesh Pradhan, South Grafton, Massachusetts, Amanda Jimenez Marrufo, Camas, Spain, Fernando Manuel Medeiro Hidalgo, Seville, Spain, Rafael Dominguez Castro, Benacazon, Spain, Rafael Romay Juarez, Seville, Spain, and Sergio Morillas Castillo, Seville, Spain.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,125,860.PN.&OS=PN/11,125,860&RS=PN/11,125,860

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NortonLifeLock Assigned Patent for Retrieving Driver Safety Scores by Passenger Devices

NortonLifeLock, Tempe, Arizona, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,124,195, initially filed Oct. 27, 2020) developed by two co-inventors for “systems and methods for retrieving driver safety scores by passenger devices.” The co-inventors are Lei Gu, Bedford, Massachusetts, and Matt Boucher, Merrimack, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,24,195.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,24,195&RS=PN/1,11,24,195

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Olympus America Assigned Patent for Flow Cell for Analysis of Fluids

Olympus America, Center Valley, Pennsylvania, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,131,617, initially filed July 21, 2020) developed by eight co-inventors for a “flow cell for analysis of fluids.” The co-inventors are Gerard Colclough, Quincy, Massachusetts, Steven W. Chin, Lexington, Massachusetts, Ronald Scott Collicutt, Northbridge, Massachusetts, Alex Thurston, Belmont, Massachusetts, Michael Murray, Boston, Massachusetts, Ernest Moseley, Wilmington, Massachusetts, Jacob LaRocca, Somerville, Massachusetts, and Joel W. Kenyon, Londonberry, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,131,617.PN.&OS=PN/11,131,617&RS=PN/11,131,617

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Healthview Services Assigned Patent for Custom Interface for Client-Specific Behavior Modification

Healthview Services, Danvers, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,132,822, initially filed June 3, 2019) developed by five co-inventors for a “custom interface for client-specific behavior modification.” The co-inventors are Renato Ron Mastrogiovanni, Topsfield, Massachusetts, Zachary Shapleigh, Goffstown, New Hampshire, Amy Tenanes, Grafton, Massachusetts, Michael J. Gillen, Washington, Missouri, and Raymond Weick, Eureka, Missouri.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11,132,822.PN.&OS=PN/11,132,822&RS=PN/11,132,822

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Scholar Rock Assigned Patent for Isoform-Selective TGF.Beta.1 Inhibitors, Use Thereof

Scholar Rock, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,130,803, initially filed July 11, 2019) developed by 16 co-inventors for “isoform-selective TGF.beta.1 inhibitors and use thereof.” The co-inventors are Abhishek Datta, Boston, Massachusetts, Allan Capili, Somerville, Massachusetts, Thomas Schurpf, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Constance Martin, Arlington, Massachusetts, Kevin B. Dagbay, Brighton, Massachusetts, Christopher Chapron, Watertown, Massachusetts, Stefan Wawersik, Westborough, Massachusetts, Christopher Littlefield, Marblehead, Massachusetts, Gregory J. Carven, Maynard, Massachusetts, Alan Buckler, Arlington, Massachusetts, Susan Lin, Boston, Massachusetts, Justin W. Jackson, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Caitlin Stein, Lebanon, New Hampshire, Matthew Salotto, Hanover, New Hampshire, Andrew Avery, Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Anthony Cooper, White River Junction, Vermont.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,30,803.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,30,803&RS=PN/1,11,30,803

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Nanoscale Powders Assigned Patent for Methods for Producing Metal Powders

Nanoscale Powders, Boston, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,130,177, initially filed Feb. 22, 2019) developed by five co-inventors for “methods for producing metal powders.” The co-inventors are David Henderson, Concord, New Hampshire, Andrew Matheson, Belmont, Massachusetts, Richard Van Lieshout, New Freedom, Pennsylvania, Donald Finnerty, New Freedom, Pennsylvania, and John W. Koenitzer, Carlisle, Massachusetts.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,30,177.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,30,177&RS=PN/1,11,30,177

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Hydrow Assigned Patent for Rowing

Hydrow, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,130,017, initially filed Sept. 30, 2019) developed by seven co-inventors for rowing. The co-inventors are Bruce Smith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Chris Paul, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Christopher Evans, Amherst, New Hampshire, Gerhard Pawelka, Lexington, Massachusetts, William Burke, San Francisco, California, Harald Quintus-Bosz, Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Klaus Renner, Hollis, New Hampshire.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,30,017.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,30,017&RS=PN/1,11,30,017

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Xenotherapeutics, Xenotherapeutics Assigned Patent for Xenotransplantation Products, Methods

Xenotherapeutics, Boston, Massachusetts, Xenotherapeutics, Enfield, New Hampshire, have been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,922, initially filed Sept. 10, 2020) developed by four co-inventors for “xenotransplantation products and methods.” The co-inventors are Paul W. Holzer, Enfield, New Hampshire, Jon Adkins, Londonderry, New Hampshire, Rodney L. Monroy, North Fort Myers, Florida, and Elizabeth J. Chang, Pittsford, New York.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,922.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,922&RS=PN/1,11,29,922

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Paratek Pharmaceuticals Assigned Patent for Minocycline Compounds for Biodefense

Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Boston, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,839, initially filed Feb. 24, 2020) developed by two co-inventors for “minocycline compounds for biodefense.” The co-inventors are Michael P. Draper, Windham, New Hampshire, and S. Ken Tanaka, Bellevue, Washington.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,839.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,839&RS=PN/1,11,29,839

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KIC Ventures Assigned Patent for System, Method for Bone Fusing Implants

KIC Ventures, Malden, Massachusetts, has been assigned a patent (No. 11,129,655, initially filed July 18, 2019) developed by six co-inventors for a “system and method for bone fusing implants.” The co-inventors are Jeremy Crossgrove, Brookline, Massachusetts, Oscar Herrera, Malden, Massachusetts, Michael Emery, Windham, New Hampshire, Joshua Finkel, Malden, Massachusetts, Kyle Woodard, Malden, Massachusetts, and Kingsley R. Chin, Wilton Manors, Florida.\nThe full-text of the patent can be found at https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1,11,29,655.PN.&OS=PN/1,11,29,655&RS=PN/1,11,29,655

The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), will be created under a five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center award. The center, led by a team at Oregon State University (OSU), will bring together experts from across the US, including Dartmouth Engineering professor Mary Albert, to advance efforts to address climate change and its impacts.

Currently, the oldest continuous record of Antarctic ice — collected by drilling miles down from the continent’s surface — goes back approximately 800,000 years. The researchers hope to increase that continuous record to at least 1.5 million years. COLDEX collaborators also hope to locate much older ice, perhaps up to 3 million years old and even older, that may be trapped in the mountains around Antarctica.

tion’s leading universities in ice core science are involved in COLDEX,” said Albert, who is also Executive Director of the US Ice Drilling Program (IDP). “The NSF-funded Ice Drilling Program led by Dartmouth is the nation’s premier ice core drilling engineering enterprise; with years of experience drilling ice cores both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, we are happy to have the COLDEX drilling in our portfolio of ice coring projects for the coming decade.”

As part of the COLDEX funding, IDP will hold “School of Ice” sessions to provide faculty from minority-serving institutions across the country the opportunity to expand their knowledge of Earth’s climate record through analysis of ice core records collected by IDP.

In addition to Albert, Dartmouth Engineering’s COLDEX involvement will be supported by Louise Huffman, Education Program Manager, and Blaise Stephanus, Program Manager; in addition, several Dartmouth Engineering undergraduates will assist with “School of Ice” activities.

COLDEX is one of six new NSF Science and Technology Centers (STCs). NSF currently supports 12 centers, with the last group funded in 2016. The objective of the program, established in 1987, is to support transformative, complex research programs in fundamental areas of science that require large-scale, long-term funding.

University partners on the project include: Amherst College; Brown University; Princeton University; University of California, Berkeley; UC Irvine; UC San Diego; the University of Kansas; University of Maine; University of Minnesota, Duluth; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Texas; and the University of Washington. Additional COLDEX partners include the American Meteorological Society, Inspiring Girls Expeditions, the Earth Science Women’s Network, and the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program.

Farmers are envisioning ways to harmonize the production of food and the sequestration of carbon:
“Given how much of our environment we’ve degraded, sustainability isn’t even enough of a goal — we really need to focus on regeneration.”

The immediate push: “carbon farming” (getting to the soil to absorb more); solar power and eventually electric tractors when they get better. The whole article is here.

On a related note, the Interchange podcast had an excellent interview recently about fertilizer production, which is a MUCH bigger contributor to the climate emergency than I realized, not to mention a badly designed industry that is incredibly unsafe, as the Beirut port explosion demonstrated. It focuses on an interesting company working on a technology that allows fertilizer production right at the farm rather than in giant factories – distributed fertilizer production! Here it is.

By the way, check the bottom of the Valley News Article and you’ll see this in the reporter’s ID: “Claire Potter is a Report for America corps member.” Report for America is an interesting non-profit that helps pay for reporters to be based at newspapers around the country. The Concord Monitor has a couple positions partly supported by it. It’s a very effective way to help stem the collapse of local journalism in the U.S.

NHPR has a quick recap.

A new online tool called Airport Tracker, a joint project by the non-profits International Council on Clean Transportation, ODI, and Transport and Environment, says annual takeoffs at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport produce as much CO2 as the annual pollution of 53,000 cars.

That’s about 11% of the total number of cars registered in New Hampshire, if you’re wondering.

As for Logan, the site estimates its takeoff emissions as equivalent to “1 coal plant”. Portland, Maine (PWM code) is 65,000 cars and they don’t seem to include Burlington, Vt. – I assume it’s too small.

The largest rooftop solar array in New Hampshire was unveiled on Wednesday and is going to make a big impact on the state. But not for the right reason.

“Just to put it in perspective … these 3,400 panels will add an entire 1% to New Hampshire’s total fleet of deployed solar capacity,” said ReVision Energy co-owner Dan Weeks during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a 1.3 megawatt array atop the Associated Grocers of New England warehouse in Pembroke.

A little glance at Solar Energy Industry Association data shows that if this array was being unveiled in Maine it would add only one-half of one percent to statewide capacity. In Vermont, just one-third of one percent. And in Massachusetts it would hardly be noticed.

In other words, that big impact mostly reflects New Hampshire’s status as a solar laggard. “The state is a little bit behind other states,” is how Weeks gently put it in his remarks.

There are signs this may change, notably the state’s long-overdue expansion of the net-metering cap for  municipalities from 1 to 5 megawatts. And the ever-more-alarming results of the climate emergency is leading to more interest from companies in reducing global warming impact, Weeks indicated, an interest that is helped by federal incentives.

The $2.3 million cost of the 3,400-panel array was partly offset by almost $600,000 in investment tax credits, reducing the payback period – the time it will take for savings in lower electricity costs to cover the investment – to between 8 and 9 years, said Steven Murphy, the former Chief Financial Officer of Associated Grocers. 

Brentwood-based ReVision Energy oversaw the installation.

The 75-year-old Associated Grocers of New England holds and distributes grocery products for member stores, which are typically smaller than chain supermarkets.  The Pembroke warehouse is the largest retailer-owned grocery distribution center in New England. 

Over the course of a year, the array should provide about 20% of the electricity used by the massive, 500,000-square-foot building, which includes a lot of power-hungry refrigeration. On bright, cool afternoons the array can produce more power than the building needs, allowing Associated Grocers to sell the power back to the grid.

Larger arrays exist in the state and much larger arrays are in the works, but they are mounted on the ground. Rooftop arrays require less wiring to connect them to users and take advantage of unused real estate, but may include more difficult maintenance.

In his comments, Weeks assured the company not to worry about one winter maintenance issue.

Because the panels are tilted to maximize solar input and spaced about a foot apart there is room for snow to slide off them, and any loss of production due to snow has been factored into estimates, he said: “You don’t need worry about sending people up to literally shovel 3,400 panels in the winter.”