Oas Kulkarni

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Articles by Oas Kulkarni

Scientists Discover Water on Mars!

Oas Kulkarni

Scientists Discover Water on Mars!

Mars is probably not the first planet you think of when it comes to water. However, if we rewind the clock to approximately 3 billion years ago, evidence from scientific explorations suggests that its surface was once covered with oceans, rivers, and lakes. Solar winds, continuous streams of electrons and protons from the sun’s outermost layer, slowly chipped away and depleted the Martian atmosphere. With the atmosphere disappearing, water either evaporated into space, merged with the surrounding minerals, or escaped underground and became ice.

Climate Change is causing a Rise in Dengue Fever!

Oas Kulkarni

Climate Change is causing a Rise in Dengue Fever!

Climate change is here, and along with warmer temperatures, mosquitoes are breeding faster and more often than they usually do. Normally, the worst a mosquito can do is give you an itchy bite. Some mosquitoes can, however, transmit deadly viruses that can lead to hospitalisation and even death. The most common mosquito-borne disease in the world is a fever called dengue, also named “break-bone fever”. Dengue fever is endemic (always present within a specific area) to many countries that lie within the tropical and sub-tropical belt.

Printed Solar Panels – Is This the Future?

Oas Kulkarni

Printed Solar Panels – Is This the Future?

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia has been busy developing a new technology that allows ‘solar ink’ to be printed on plastic sheets to create thin, light, semi-transparent and flexible solar panels. Think solar panels integrated on tents for emergency or recreational purposes, panels laminated on home or office windows, panels lining the outside of greenhouses or tunnels, panels printed on clothing or even packaging – the possibilities are endless!

Can Cold Water Save the Great Barrier Reef?

Oas Kulkarni

Can Cold Water Save the Great Barrier Reef?

For coral reefs, climate change continues to be a huge problem.  The warmer waters cause the coral to bleach – lose their colour by expelling the zooxanthellae algae living within their tissue. These colourful algae provide the corals with energy and nutrition via photosynthesis, in exchange for shelter. The Great Barrier Reef has incurred 7 mass bleaching events over the last 25 years, 5 in just the last 8 years! Curiously, some parts of the Great Barrier Reef, such as the northern Ribbon Reefs and the southern Swains and Pompey reefs, have escaped these mass bleaching events and lie untouched - how are these reefs still alive and thriving?