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When you’re installing solar panels, it’s important to point them at the Sun. But the Sun isn’t always in the same place – it moves across the sky over the course of a day. If you can aim the panels towards the Sun as it moves, they can produce up to 40 per cent more power…

In the latest issue of Double Helix magazine, we feature solar powered cars racing from Darwin to Adelaide. They zoomed to the finish line last week. The winner is Dutch team Nuon with their car Nuna 8!

Written by Beth Askham Make your own climbing frog, using the power of friction.

2015 is the The International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies. To celebrate, we’re sharing some light-based articles and activities:

A big congratulations to Dhruv Verma from Victoria and Jackson Huang from Queensland, the two winners of this year’s BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards. Dhruv was recognised for his PROTEGO project, and Jackson for his investigation into heartburn medication alternatives.

Written by Beth Askham Researchers have made sticky hand pads that let you climb walls like Spiderman. Inspired by gecko feet, a research lab at Stanford University in America developed the climbing device. This technology recently allowed a person weighing 70 kilograms to climb a sheer glass wall. The team have also used the structure…

What will make our future brighter? For thousands of years our lives have been lit by the Sun, by stars, by fire. Electricity brought new types of lights, ones we can summon at the flick of a switch.

One of our readers requested an article about time keeping devices, and it’s a great time for the topic. Scientists set a new record in clock precision early this year with an atomic clock that ‘ticks’ 430 trillion times in a single second. Vibrations on your wrist Most wristwatches and wall clocks today use a…

Written by Sarah Kellett Can we power our homes with the process that powers stars? Nuclear fusion offers to do just that, and scientists are looking for ways to harness this energy with experiments that run hotter than the Sun.

Written by Sarah Kellett A whispering gallery of light has made the world’s most sensitive thermometer yet.