Author: Sudarshan Murthy (first posted at http://bit.ly/rkrcn2 on August 19, 2011)
Slashdot recently had an interesting discussion about a 13-year old employing a naturally-occurring Fibonacci pattern to improve yield from solar panels (by ~20%) compared to the yield from the traditional linear arrangement of panels.
Reading the articles linked from that discussion, the kid's experimental arrangement appears to be biased in favor of the Fibonacci pattern. For example, some shadows are apparent on the linear arrangement. Also, his panels are placed much higher than the linearly-arranged panels.
I have observed similar biases in works by other kids and it worries me a bit: The budding scientists and engineers may be doing useful and novel things (more on novelty in a bit), but they don't seem to be learning about making objective measurements, a key requirement of any science.
About novelty: What the kid has done, by his own admission, is to arrange the solar panels the way leaves on an Oak tree are arranged, and he apparently has a provisional patent on this design. This begs the questions: Is mimicking a naturally-occurring pattern patentable? Are we now awarding undeserved patents to kids as an incentive to do more?
Of course, anyone who has read scientific literature knows that biases abound in the scientific work of "adults". And, let us not even get started on the kinds of silly things that are granted patents.
Now, isn't there any way we can emancipate and empower kids so they can do better than grown ups?
Slashdot recently had an interesting discussion about a 13-year old employing a naturally-occurring Fibonacci pattern to improve yield from solar panels (by ~20%) compared to the yield from the traditional linear arrangement of panels.
Reading the articles linked from that discussion, the kid's experimental arrangement appears to be biased in favor of the Fibonacci pattern. For example, some shadows are apparent on the linear arrangement. Also, his panels are placed much higher than the linearly-arranged panels.
I have observed similar biases in works by other kids and it worries me a bit: The budding scientists and engineers may be doing useful and novel things (more on novelty in a bit), but they don't seem to be learning about making objective measurements, a key requirement of any science.
About novelty: What the kid has done, by his own admission, is to arrange the solar panels the way leaves on an Oak tree are arranged, and he apparently has a provisional patent on this design. This begs the questions: Is mimicking a naturally-occurring pattern patentable? Are we now awarding undeserved patents to kids as an incentive to do more?
Of course, anyone who has read scientific literature knows that biases abound in the scientific work of "adults". And, let us not even get started on the kinds of silly things that are granted patents.
Now, isn't there any way we can emancipate and empower kids so they can do better than grown ups?