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The Summer is in full swing and a heat wave is upon us, only every summer feels like a heatwave in Spain. So, no better time to start preparing some truly refreshing summer dishes. Here are 4 recipes that will give you some relief from the blistering heat and perhaps make your appetite come back, which I often find disappears with such heat!

Mosquitoes are a nuisance because of their buzzing and biting, but they are also the most deadly animals for humans, due to the transmission of different viruses and parasites.

Some species of these flying killing machines feed exclusively on humans, but to be such a successful feeder, they must have evolved precise targeting mechanisms to distinguish between human and animal scents. Now researchers are finally figuring out how they do it.

A new study published in Nature could answer the question: What do mosquitoes detect and how do they detect it?

The team created genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, vectors of Zika virus, dengue virus, yellow fever virus, and chikungunya virus, using CRISPR-Cas9. These transgenic insects had brains that lit up when active, allowing scientists to image the brains in high resolution. The researchers then fed human- and animal-scented air to the mosquitoes through a wind tunnel to determine what attracted the insect's attention.

Human odour is made up of many different compounds, and these same compounds are also present in most mammalian odours, but in different proportions. Previous research has found that the compounds alone are not attractive to mosquitoes, so determining the exact ratios of the attractive compounds is a challenge.

The team used the scent of 16 humans, two rats, two guinea pigs, two quail, one sheep and four dogs to stimulate the mosquito's appetite. The way they collected these samples was quite interesting. For the sheep, they had a farm donate several fleeces, and for the dogs, they visited a grooming salon and collected clipped dog hair.

For the human samples, they had a lot of great volunteers according to study author Jessica Zung. They asked them not to bathe for a few days, and then they undressed and lay down in a Teflon bag.

Once they recovered all of these odours, they designed a clever system to inject the genetically modified mosquitoes with odours into the imaging setup area.

The mosquito brain has 60 nerve centres called glomeruli, and the team originally hypothesized that most of these centres would be involved in helping the mosquito find its next meal and distinguish human from animal scents, but it turned out to be all that contrary.

"When I first saw the brain activity, I couldn't believe it, only two glomeruli were involved," said Zhilei Zhao, a member of the research team. "That contradicted everything we expected, so I repeated the experiment several times, with more humans, and more animals. I just couldn't believe it. It's so simple," Zhao added.

Through experiments, it was determined that mosquitoes detect two chemicals (decanal and undecanal), which are enriched by human odour and likely originate from unique human skin lipids rather than sweat.

Overall, this collaborative research can help the development of new repellents, allowing us all to enjoy the nice outside air without the fear of these nasty bugs stealing our blood.

But in the meantime, there is, however, a natural remedy that can keep insects at bay in our home. A basil plant on our window sill will drive away mosquitoes.

The objective of Vizcaya Bridge began simply enough: link inhabited riverbanks without disturbing the shipping traffic navigating its waterways. But when this planning is all transpiring in the late 19th century and involves the royal throne, plans have a way of escalating.

Locals living along the Nervion River in the conjoined summer resorts of Las Arenas and Portugalete have taken to calling the Vizcaya Bridge “Puente Colgante,” the hanging or suspension bridge. Lest spectators be fooled from a distance, this is no ordinary suspension bridge even though it may appear so. 

Designed in 1893 by Basque architect Alberto de Palacio, the same man responsible for the Crystal Palace in Madrid’s Parque Retiro, the Vizcaya Bridge’s planning was meticulously thought-out. Not only did it ensure that the period’s tall ship traffic could pass uninhibited beneath its 200-foot-tall arches, but the 538-foot long bridge itself was designed to transport passengers and cargo in its own right. A gondola system still in use to this day was devised to ferry humans and vehicles together, suspended above the waterway, across to the other side. 

Since its opening in 1893, every day, every eight minutes, all day and night, a gondola suspended beneath the bridge’s upper walkway carry up to six vehicles and dozens of passengers from one bank of the Nervion to the other. With over a century of use under its belt, Vizcaya Bridge only experienced a single lapse into disuse; during the Spanish Civil War, dynamite was detonated on the bridge’s upper deck, and it took four years before the damage could be repaired, returning the beloved bridge to serviceable condition. 

In 2006, this truly remarkable piece of engineering was recognized by UNESCO, adding an extra degree of security that this rare, mutant bridge that genuinely has managed to do it all will continue to delight and service its passengers for centuries to come.