The sun is cool and all, but is there a way we can use it to make our lives better? ..It

just dawned on me.

Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and I apologize for that awful pun earlier. It's a sickness

and I can't stop.

Anyway, we've been talking a lot lately about simple things you can do at home to decrease

your carbon footprint. Recently I showed you how to start your own backyard compost, and

today - I'm gonna be talking about solar power.

Now typically when people hear solar power, they think of solar panels - which are great

for the environment. But they're also expensive and complicated to install.

But that's ok - because it turns out, there are tons of solar-powered devices out there

- that don't require installation, that you probably never even knew existed.

A keyboard, for example, is something almost everyone uses - and Logitech makes one that's

reasonably priced and runs on solar power. What's even cooler about this one, is that

you don't need natural sunlight to charge it. Any light source will work, including

a desk lamp. And it has great reviews, too - one person on Amazon said they kept it in

a dark room for several months, and the power level never dipped below 100%, which is pretty

insane when you think about it.

Another product that's nowhere near as useful as a keyboard - but interesting, nonetheless

- a solar-powered bikini! For the person who has everything, except shame. This was created

by Brooklyn-based designer Andrew Schneider, who spends around 80 hours on each one, hand-stitching

hundreds of strips of photovoltaic film together with conductive thread. Of course the downside,

is that you can't actually use it in water, but hey - if checking Facebook at the beach

is THAT important to you, you can always custom order one through his website.

For a less girly product, a company called Husqvarna makes a line of solar hybrid robotic

lawnmowers - like Roombas, but for your yard. These are pretty pricey, around $2-4K, BUT

their list of features is pretty damn impressive. They can be used at night, in the rain, on

steep hills, on uneven grass - and did you notice they look like mini-Batmobiles?! If

your dream is to own a Batmobile, and you have 4,000 dollars lying around - it would

be downright irresponsible of you, not to buy this. Yeah. I said it.

All the money in the world can't buy this next product - but that doesn't make it any

less amazing. A pair of Swiss aviation pioneers recently unveiled the Solar Impulse 2, a single-person

aircraft powered entirely by the sun. The surface of the plane is covered with 17,000

solar cells, and custom-made lithium batteries store that energy for nighttime - making it

the only plane in the world with unlimited endurance.

To raise awareness about clean energy, its creators will attempt the first 5-day, non-stop

flight around the world in March 2015. And since I know you're all wondering - yes, the

seat does double as a toilet. God the future is incredible.

And hey, speaking of great inventions - Discovery Digital and BASF are teaming up once again,

to get kids to use their imagination and demonstrate their knowledge of all things science.

Children in grades K-8 are encouraged to submit a 2-4 minute video about an educational and

creative science experiment related to chemistry, sustainability, innovation, technology, or

energy.

One Grand Prize winner will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and an iPad, along with

a Stuff To Blow Your Mind prize pack. All you have to do to enter, is submit your video

to stufftoblowyourmind.com/science-awards by May 23rd.

The winner will be announced June 6th, and the winning experiment will be featured on

StuffToBlowYourMind.com - so if you wanna be internet famous while spreading the gospel

of science, be sure to get your videos in by May 23rd.

That's all for me, but as always - you can check out more videos of Dnews by subscribing

here.