Two years ago, when Aidan Dwyer was just 11 years old, he went hiking in the woods with his parents and he took a good long look at the trees. He wondered why the leaves grew the way they did and wondered if their patterns could somehow be used to improve solar power collection. With a little research, over the course of the next two years, he built a solar collector with panels arrayed like the leaves on a tree and compared their output to those of a traditional, flat solar panel. He compared measurements and found that his tree structure’s numbers were higher. Excitedly, the now 13-year-old submitted his results to the Young Naturalist Awards, a national contest run by the American Museum of Natural History, and was picked as one of 12 winners. And that’s when the real controversy began. Many scientists first lauded Aidan for his “out-of-the-box” thinking, but there was one little problem with his design: Aidan had measured and compared voltage when what he really needed to calculate was power. [Read this article]

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is letting the sun shine in, and some of its officers are getting a charge out of it. Solar charging panels on some police cars allow officers to take advantage of sun power. The average police car drains two 12-volt batteries a year due to all of the electronics and lights it has to operate. The solar panels help save gas too, said Assistant Chief John Lamb, in charge of the Sheriff’s Office’s logistics and general support division. “We wanted to look for alternatives to combat the problems and solar is free,” Lamb said. The basic Chevrolet Impala police cruiser packs a 230-horsepower V-6 gasoline engine with a heavy-duty 12-volt battery. Add spotlights, flashlight charger, radio and emergency lights as well as laptop computer, and that can tax the battery. [Read this article]