• 13-year-old discovers way to increase energy efficiency, inspired by nature

  • Solar-Power-Breakthrough-1.jpg
    If you’ve been over-friendly with numbers, you probably might have come across the Fibonacci Sequence, the series of numbers around which the whole universe seems to resolve. 13-year-old superbrain, Aidan Dwyer recently associated the good old Fibonacci Sequence with the way tree branches were structured, and stumbled upon the astounding fact that the branches didn’t grow at random, instead choosing positions that help increase the amount of light gathered for the trees. The 7th grader came up with this explanation while walking through the woods one winter day, and couldn’t help noticing the way the barren tree branches were shaped. And to prove himself correct, Dwyer used the same number of solar cells, and built two solar modules, one the traditional flat paneled way, and the second shaped like tree branches, after careful measurements. The result was a 20% higher efficiency level for the tree shaped module!


    This just goes to show how much clever nature is, than evolving sciences today, and Dwyer’s discovery will sure go down in history books!
    [Gizmodo]

    Posted in Topics:Gadgets and Tech, Tags: , on August 22, 2011