​The last element needed for life on Enceladus has just been discovered ● Asian mosquitoes have become highly resistant to insecticides ● Unprecedented concentration of Mayan settlements discovered in northern Guatemala

The last element needed for life on Enceladus has just been discovered

In theory, Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has just passed the ultimate test of what it means to have the necessary ingredients for life. The information was sent to us by the Cassini spacecraft and confirmed by NASA.

We are talking about phosphorus, a vital element in DNA and RNA. It was the last ingredient needed for life after carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen were confirmed to exist. Well, we did our thing, the cat on Enceladus, it has everything it needs to create life there and fill the oceans.

What is even more interesting is that the concentration of phosphorus is several thousand times higher than the concentration on Earth. So let’s do the right thing and start creating life on Enceladus, because experts continue to say that it is one of the most important candidates in this chapter.

Now don’t rush to grab your flip flops and go there on vacation! Meteorologists say the average temperature is somewhere around -198 degrees Celsius, and the ice covering the oceans is several kilometers thick. You still have some patience until the existence of life there is confirmed. I’m sure it’s not going on anymore.

Asian mosquitoes have become highly resistant to insecticides

What gift should nature have for Christmas, given that you have been polluting the environment, not economizing, and clinging to only bad things? Well, you have several insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. So from these you will get. We learn news from the journal Science Advances, where an international team of experts reports what and how.

The mentioned researchers collected several specimens of live mosquitoes from Ghana, Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan, and then sprayed them with an insecticide called permethrin, an insecticide widely used in the mentioned countries. After that, scientists found that only 20% of Vietnamese mosquitoes died. The rest, you say they were given armpit deodorant. They loved it so much.

The researchers discovered a mutation in the L982W gene in mosquitoes, a mutation that makes them resistant to an insecticide that would otherwise destroy their central nervous system. In addition, the same mutation was also found in mosquitoes from Singapore and Cambodia. Başca, Cambodians were found to have nine more mutations that increased their resistance by about 50-100 times.

I saved the best part of the research for last. That is, in combination, certain mutations from those already detected can lead to resistance to insecticides 1000 times higher than usual. Currently, the authors of the study say that other countries should conduct similar testing. We may be surprised by what they discover.

An unprecedented concentration of Mayan settlements was discovered in the north of Guatemala

More than 1,000 Mayan settlements have recently been identified using a LiDAR radar system, concentrated in an area of ​​about 1,700 square kilometers. Not that similar discoveries haven’t been made before with LiDAR technology, but this time the scale of the concentration of human settlements is huge. First of all, the discovery refutes the hypothesis that the Maya lived in sparse communities far from each other.

All settlements seem to be connected to each other by wide roads, which facilitated contact with each other. Huge pyramids and structures that betray the existence of elite, administrative buildings, sports centers, workshops and housing for the common population have also been seen.

Interestingly, the Maya also built canals to transport water and huge reservoirs to store water during dry periods. According to preliminary data, the reservoirs discovered so far could hold more than 700,000 cubic meters of water, but more are expected to be discovered.

In general, there is no doubt that the discovery is great, and the large concentration of settlements in the north of Guatemala can betray the existence of a small independent kingdom, especially since it is about the preclassic period of the Mayan civilization. (approx. 1000 BC – 150 AD)

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