Aidan Dwyer’s eureka moment came on a wintry Catskill hike- why not shape solar arrays like tree branches rather than flat panels? His early results looked promising. Indeed, they won him a prestigious award for young scientists. Then the press began, and with it, the news that his methodology had been flawed. Dwyer, undaunted, began a new set of tests, still uncompleted, aimed at proving his hypothesis. But then, a strange thing happened.
Aidan began being attacked in internet forums, by those whom he calls “the haters”. Somehow ignoring the remarkable achievement by thus 13 year old, even should he be proven wrong, there was an inappropriate and offensive vitriol. Aidan remains unfazed.
Dr. Kleissl praised Aidan’s work, but added that even if Aidan had measured the right variables, “I’m certain that he will not find that his arrangement is better,” he said. “I think it’s a romantic ideal that nature has many lessons for us, and there are a few cases where this is true, but in the majority of cases we could teach nature, in a way, how to be better, faster.”
On a recent afternoon, Aidan showed a visitor his newest model, tweaked to respond to his critics: a towering seven-foot tree form adorned with solar panels and painted green. He is now measuring current and power. So far, he said, the tree continues to outperform the traditional panel. “I’m thinking that it could actually change the world.”
Related articles
- Aidan Dwyer : A Big Mistake? He’s Still Cool. (willsmath.wordpress.com)
- Aidan Dwyer, the 13-year-old, celebrated as a genius for discovering something people loved to think was true. (althouse.blogspot.com)
- Can a 13-Year-Old Change the World? (ecoleader.wordpress.com)
- 13 Year-old Aidan Dwyer Discusses His Fibonacci Sequence-Inspired Solar Tree (Video) (treehugger.com)
- The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees (worldwright.wordpress.com)
