Can solar power really solve the issue of fossil fuels? Are solar cells economically efficient? And how do they build those solar panels anyway? New Cornell research strives to transform solar technology, using newer, cheaper materials to generate renewable energy.

It is sundown in the tiny, poverty-stricken town of Mbaka Oromo in Western Kenya, and the lights of a newly-renovated school are illuminating the mountainside on which the building is perched. A year prior, the school’s students would have been forced to make the trek back home once the sun had set, as the town had no source of electricity.

Perhaps it’s America’s humble, rural origins that produced this backcountry entertainment, such as livestock competitions and baking exhibitions. Or maybe it’s just the personal desire to win that has driven generations of Americans to town, county, and state fairs.

By tradition, State Fairs are a recreational gathering of competitors and patrons alike, seeking their amusement from musicians and farming oddities, but there’s a reason they award ribbons of eight colors. Competitors have traditionally been driven by the desire to display the fruits of delicate labor and achieve the respect of their friends and neighbors.