This is one 13-year-old who doesn’t believe in spending his free time playing video games or exploring the internet. He would rather crack the code to make solar power! Meet Aidan Dwyer, a Grade 7 student from the US, who while trekking through the woods, uncovered a science mystery. Aidan spent many hours studying how trees branch in a very specific way. Based on his observations, he created a ‘solar cell tree’ that produces 20-50 per cent more power than a uniform array of photovoltaic panels. Impressed? Here’s more. Aidan has gone on to show how by using a specific formula for distributing solar cells, energy generation can be drastically improved.
This is a rare find in the field of technology – no wonder it has earned him a US patent!
Who could have ever imagined creating ‘pop-up cinema’ with loads of rubbish? Well, a 25-year-old US citizen Lindsey Scannapieco did, and the result is Britain’s coolest new pop-up cinema called ‘Films on Fridges’. It is an outdoor venue where the screen is surrounded by fridges, the bar is made of fridge parts, and fridge doors are incorporated into the seating arrangements. Lindsey Scannapieco was inspired by ‘Fridge Mountain’, a high pile of discarded fridges that towered in Hackney, UK.
How exactly did she come up with this innovative idea? “Fridge Mountain seemed to be a part of urban folklore. It spoke about east London’s industrial past at a time when the area was changing. I thought it would be fun to resurrect it and create something,” she says. Well done!
Warning: The following information can cause great unrest. Please be careful. Did you know the number of cars on the planet has crossed the billion mark? And that almost half of the new growth is in China? What’s more, Toyota has managed to sell only one Prius in China last year. Yes, the world’s most commercially successful hybrid car has found only one buyer in the world’s fastest growing market. SUV sales, you guessed it right, are on an exponential rise. China, however, is not the only culprit. According to a report by the trade journal Ward’s, 35 million new cars and lorries were sold worldwide last year – the second-biggest increase ever recorded. That is 95,500 extra vehicles being added to the global traffic jam every day. Yes, we are in for trouble. Gob bless us.
(Read Driving to Death, a related article on the issue of parking)
Going green just got a whole new meaning. McDonald’s in the UK has recently claimed to be the first company in the country to commit to ‘closed loop’ recycled uniform. Wondering what that means? This: All of McDonald’s 85,000 staff will soon be wearing ‘100 per cent recycled’ uniforms designed by eco-designer Wayne Hemingway.
Sorry ‘Royal dress’ designer Bruce Oldfield. The somewhat dull black and mocha uniform that you designed three years ago has to be replaced now! Curious how Hemingway’s upcycling company Worn Again will make the uniform? It’s all decided. Clothing will be collected in stores, reprocessed into raw materials, and then made into smart and new recycled uniforms. Now, chew on that!
We all love going for bird or animal spotting expeditions, isn’t it? Imagine how much fun it must have been for the student who spotted a rare species of ladybird which has been rediscovered breeding in the UK for the first time in nearly 60 years! The breeding population of 13-spot ladybirds were found in the Axe Estuary Wetlands in Devon. “As soon as I saw the larva I was fairly sure it was a 13-spot. It is something I’ve always dreamt of finding,” said Richard Comont, the PhD student who made the discovery. The insect was found during a “Bioblitz” event, where the local people work with scientists to record all the insect species in an area.
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