Solar power in a flower.

It's great to see that a better appreciation of alternative and sustainable energy like solar is making a name for itself in today's toy industry, which goes to show that more and more people are seeing the value of sun-inspired energy efforts in daily living.

This quaint toy flower's rounded leaves and cheerful orange petals dance happily even with small amounts of sunlight in a room. And when young children see flowers like these bouncing about on a windowsill, their eyes often grow in awe and excitement for what they're glimpsing. And then they want to understand how it works, too.

The tiny frame of solar cells tucked in front of this toy flower in its bright blue pot help it to convert the light's energy into its own energy so that it can keep on dancing. And it easily shows how just a little bit of light has the capacity to literally power even a toy but so much more.

Sip well & solar up during Drinking Water Week.

May 5 to 11 is Drinking Water Week across the U.S., sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the EPA, and several other organizations that advocate pro-healthy drinking water availabilty.

"Water regulates the Earth's temperature," the National Sanitation Foundation mentions on its website in explaining some of the importance of water's functions. "It also regulates the temperature of the human body, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, and removes wastes."

In line with this week's geared awareness, a company known as Puralytics in Oregon has created a bag that harnesses the sun's energy paired with nanotechology in order to allow for clean drinking water in remote places. Its purification process is an advancement showing how solar smarts are an incredible asset in today's world.

Puralytics is also slated to develop a floating solar-powered device that will treat and remove contaminants in retention ponds and in ditches along heavy traffic roadways and parking areas so that the water reaching nearby streams would be cleaner and less polluted.

"What we do to the environment affects the quality of our drinking water," the NSF elaborates, with this tying well into showing how solar energy can be a part of prevention and better practices of sustainability in daily living. "What we pour on the ground will end up in our water; what we spray into the air will also end up in our water."

It helps that the production of solar energy tosses no harmful pollutants into the environment, too.

Diving into healthy choices in not only what we gulp down daily but in the types of energy we use is important for our world; think green and clean.