Recent David Brooks Columns

Winter low temperatures aren’t as low as they used to be

David Brooks | Monday, February 6, 2012

As your snowmobile, ice skates and snowshoes slowly rust away from lack of use, you might be wondering if our winters are getting warmer. The …

Roman numerals are interesting, not just for making a football game look pompous

David Brooks | Monday, January 30, 2012

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column originally forgot about “D”, the character for 500 - the sentence has been corrected. . Not being what you would call …

Nashuan gets attention for helping find ‘lip-reading’ infants

David Brooks | Monday, January 23, 2012

When a graduate student getting widespread attention for a piece of scientific research looks back on her high school days, you expect reminiscence about labs, …

The law that blacked out Wikipedia has New Hampshire network firm worried

David Brooks | Wednesday, January 18, 2012

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wondering why Wikipedia, Wired.com, Boing Boing and other sites are blacked out today, and why Google has a big censored sign on its …

Science Cafe on Wednesday: Is burning wood for energy really a good idea?

David Brooks | Monday, January 16, 2012

Burning wood to keep warm is so 19th century. That’s why it has a much more interesting name for the 21st century. “We are tailor-made …

End-of-the-world predictions are a dime a dozen

David Brooks | Monday, January 9, 2012

I have been alive for more than half a century, and not a single one of those years has gone without somebody predicting that the …

Bills seek to dilute the teaching of evolution in public schools

David Brooks | Monday, January 2, 2012

Opponents of the science of evolution usually take one of two approaches: using word games to dismiss it as “just a theory,” or claiming there’s …

Lack of acorns shows why biodiversity is a good thing

David Brooks | Monday, December 19, 2011

If you ever get tired of hearing people talk about how biodiversity is a really good thing without actually explaining why, go outside and look …

Alternative ballots make a presidential race even less predictable

David Brooks | Monday, December 12, 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE: The GraniteGeek blog is moving its URL and software, and the transition is proving to be, shall we say, awkward. At the moment …

Participate in our online alternative-voting ballot test (no sharp pencils needed)

David Brooks | Monday, December 5, 2011

Would American history be different if the New Hampshire presidential primary used non-traditional ballot methods like ranked-choice or approval voting, instead of the usual single-vote-per-ballot, …

Ticks are everywhere; blame warm weather, land-use changes

David Brooks | Monday, November 28, 2011

Change is good, they say. I agree, unless the change has eight legs and carries nasty diseases. “When I was a kid, we didn’t even …

Pay for a little bit of science via ‘crowd-funding’

David Brooks | Monday, November 21, 2011

If you’re reading this, you’re a fan of science, but do you put your money where your fandom is? You read about science, you talk …

One man, one vote – but not necessarily for only one candidate

David Brooks | Monday, November 14, 2011

No offense to Nashua candidates, but the most interesting election in New England last week occurred in Portland, Maine. This isn’t because of the result, …

‘Smart meters’ just a first step toward a smart power grid

David Brooks | Monday, November 7, 2011

While you were sitting in the dark last week, waiting for power to be restored (I was only out two days and can’t complain), wouldn’t …

There’s no plug-and-play way to create ‘gas stations’ for electric cars

David Brooks | Monday, October 24, 2011

The world’s coolest car turns into useless junk the moment it runs out of gas, which explains why a whole bunch of people around the …

Digital privacy, or lack thereof, at next Science Cafe NH on Wednesday

David Brooks | Monday, October 17, 2011

The federal government, it was disclosed last week, wants to scoop up all the various information about us that’s floating around the Internet to create …

Point of order: NH should have a statewide vaccination registry

David Brooks | Monday, October 10, 2011

Part of the appeal of living in New Hampshire is that the state tends to be unique, a square peg amid New England’s round holes. …

New Hampshire dragonfly survey is a source of good news

David Brooks | Monday, October 3, 2011

One of the reasons people dislike environmentalists, I’m convinced, is that they tend to be bearers of bad news, carrying messages that run along the …

Messy but not harmful, webworms show autumn is coming

David Brooks | Monday, September 26, 2011

Before autumn makes our trees beautiful, webworms make them ugly. Some of them, anyway. Although, not so many this year, at least around here. But …

Kids: To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate?

David Brooks | Monday, September 19, 2011

If you’re a parent, you wouldn’t do anything to put your child at risk, would you? Of course not. Except you do, all the time …

Cost of burying power lines would be a shock to customers

David Brooks | Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Tropical Storm Irene didn’t do much in Greater Nashua (thank goodness), but it did provide one lesson: Hauling water from the rain barrel sure beats …

Putting a positive spin on hurricane rotation

David Brooks | Monday, August 29, 2011

As I write this, it’s unclear how bad Hurricane Irene actually affected us, but I assume you’re reading this on Monday morning as you assess …

Nashua panel to discuss our pollution vs. our health

David Brooks | Monday, August 22, 2011

Many years ago, I visited India, a delightful trip that taught me plenty of valuable lessons, including this one: Anti-pollution laws can be our friend. …

Hey, coach, is that pawn to queen four?

David Brooks | Monday, August 15, 2011

Remember all the fuss after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, celebrating Boston as the first city to win championships in four different sports in …

Alternative regulations test alternative energy

David Brooks | Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Today we have a cautionary tale about an alternative energy technology that holds great hope for New Hampshire. Alas, for the geeks in the audience, …

Like bird watchers for Lepidoptera, they see the butterflies flutter by

David Brooks | Monday, August 8, 2011

We sometimes get things wrong at the Telegraph, and we sometimes hear about it from readers. But in all my years here, I can’t remember …

Could the Nashua River turn into Water Chestnut Way?

David Brooks | Monday, August 1, 2011

A river is forever, right? Not if one of the most prolific weeds in the world has anything to do with it. “Every year the …

By degree, geekiness more attractive

David Brooks | Monday, July 25, 2011

How geeky is New Hampshire? That seems a reasonable question for a New Hampshire newspaper column called Granite Geek to ponder in the dog days …

Simple equation: Less energy, less cost

David Brooks | Monday, July 18, 2011

GraniteGeek fans like numbers, and here’s one that fans who live in Nashua will really like: $7,670,201.51. That is not my salary (alas) – it’s …

This invasion may be happening in your pool

David Brooks | Monday, July 11, 2011

It usually takes finely tuned scientific instruments to keep an eye on Mother Nature and deflect nefarious invaders from entering our realm, but sometimes it …

Lawmakers pushing creationism in schools is a bad idea

David Brooks | Sunday, July 3, 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the Telegraph is not publishing on Monday, the weekly Granite Geek column is being published today. Two lawmakers are trying to pry …

Progress brings Net result to Mason

David Brooks | Monday, June 27, 2011

This is how you know that broadband Internet is spreading in the area: The Mason Net Cooperative doesn’t exist anymore. “It was just a thing …

Be there as food enters the geek domain

David Brooks | Monday, June 20, 2011

Growing the food we eat used to be straightforward: Other people did it far away – cheaply, adequately and with such globalized productivity that we …

Cheap loans cry for cutting energy bills

David Brooks | Monday, June 13, 2011

Even the biggest Nashua booster has to admit that our sort-of-official nickname “Gate City” doesn’t really sing. I always thought it sounds like something sold …

Expanded Internet getting a trial run

David Brooks | Monday, June 6, 2011

Techy folks aren’t always great at thinking up brand names, which may explain why the biggest change to hit the online world in years carries …

Space fan watches as the shuttle era ends

David Brooks | Sunday, May 29, 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE: Because The Telegraph doesn’t publish on Memorial Day, David Brooks’ Granite Geek column is running in today’s paper. The space shuttle has never …

Unusually wet or dry may become usual

David Brooks | Monday, May 23, 2011

This has been, as you have probably noticed, a really wet spring, with borderline flooding. But last spring, as you may recall, was really dry, …

Come one, come all for the Science Cafe

David Brooks | Monday, May 16, 2011

One of the problems with college is that the classes aren’t in taverns. Wouldn’t it be better if the professors strolled among tables, beverage in …

It’s hard to know how computer models work

David Brooks | Monday, May 9, 2011

The computer model is the Delphi oracle of the modern age, using software and mathematics rather than vapors and animal sacrifice to create mystical answers …

Give a hand to Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

David Brooks | Monday, May 2, 2011

Part of the job of saving the New England cottontail from extinction doesn’t sound too difficult: You have to get rabbits to breed. If only …

One bee is scary, 10,000 newbies can be fun

David Brooks | Monday, April 25, 2011

There’s something a little odd about deliberately riling up 10,000 critters that can hurt you. But here’s something even odder: More people seem to be …

Miracle discovery cuts commuting costs!

David Brooks | Monday, April 18, 2011

What would you do if a gas station on the other side of town discounted prices by 50 cents a gallon? You’d be there like …

From a Nashua classroom to a Mayan burial pit

David Brooks | Monday, April 11, 2011

Teachers never know where their classes will take students. Case in point: a high school class took Jason Paling to a historic find under the …

Measuring radiation routine even before Japan disaster

David Brooks | Monday, April 4, 2011

Measuring radiation in New Hampshire jumped into the news recently because of the ongoing disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant, but there’s nothing new …

Swallows’ aerial waltz threatened

David Brooks | Monday, March 28, 2011

For 20 years, phoebes have been slowly expanding a nest in the old chicken house on my property. These cute little birds build cup-like nests …

Hunting rules would be biological tools

David Brooks | Monday, March 21, 2011

Biologists do lots of interesting work in the wild with high-tech tools like GPS transmitters, infrared cameras and remote-controlled drones, but a good case can …

Mercury is no reason to avoid fluorescent bulbs

David Brooks | Monday, March 14, 2011

The Granite Geek column last week advocated getting rid of incandescent bulbs because they are outdated energy hogs, a position that drew a lot of …

The Net needs more addresses, bring on IPv6

David Brooks | Monday, March 14, 2011

When you use the Internet at home, the signal goes through a couple of boxes, which are probably shoved under a desk in your living …

Good riddance to old-fashioned light bulbs

David Brooks | Monday, March 7, 2011

Imagine if gas stations installed pumps that spilled four-fifths of everything you bought. You’d fork out $10 but only get $2 worth of gas in …

If you’re parking smart, you’re parking backward

David Brooks | Monday, February 28, 2011

Driving and parking are among those topics on which everybody is an expert, so I expect many of you will have a strong reaction to …