13 year old designs a new solar collector... or maybe not

If you have been following the story of the 13 year old and his design for a new solar collector:
http://www.squidoo.com/solar-collectors-that-emulate-nature

you might be interested in the blog that is trying to debunk the design:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/08/blog-debunks-13-year-old-scientists-solar-power-breakthrough/41520/

Myself and others have noted that based on the photos, there are twice as many cells on the "tree" (20) than on the flat panel (10). He says both have the same number, but it sure looks like that's not the case.

There are five branches on the tree, each branch has two twigs, each twig has two cells. 2x2x5=20. The flat array clearly has two rows of 5, or 10 cells. It's possible he wired the tree differently so there would only be 10 cells in series, which would produce the same voltage, or only used half of them for some reason...

I agree with the blog that the media has somehow made a mountain out of a molehill. All things considered this is a good science project and the kid deserves credit for the overall project. The experimental design was pretty good, he considered several factors (like shading, so he periodically moved the experiment location) and took lots of data over several months. He missed a few critical details that ruined his results and conclusion - I'd still give him a B+ though, and encourage him to try it again.
=Smidge=