This is where bad science starts
I have moved this post to my other blog, The Optimiskeptic. That is probably where I should have put it in the first place, but at the time, the blog needed a lot of updating (for starters it was originally created using Serendipity). Now, it is using WordPress, and a cool new comment system called Disqus. I am still "modernizing" the blog, and I plan to add new posts to it at least once or twice a week from now on. Sorry if this creates confusion.
I recently read this Gizmodo article that questioned whether or not the results of a 13-year-old kid, Aidan's, science experiment was properly debunked. Aidan's science experiment is noteworthy for three reasons: (1) He claimed to have increased the efficiency of solar cell power generation by simply arranging them in a Fibonacci (Golden Ration) pattern copied from the leafing pattern of plants found in nature, (2) his findings, published as an essay, received a "Young Naturalist Award" from the American Museum of Natural History (and a provisional patent, no less), and (3) this was reported on and praised as "genius" and a "breakthrough" by several noteworthy magazines such as Poplar Science, Slashdot, and The Atlantic Wire.