spiders – Techdirt (original) (raw)
Stories filed under: "spiders"
DailyDirt: Watch Out! Here Comes The Spider-Man…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Comic book superheroes have all kinds of incredible abilities. There are a few wall-crawling heroes, but the wall-climbing ability of a “Gecko Man” hasn’t really captured as many fans as Spider-Man has. A bite from a radioactive spider might not be the most realistic way to obtain the power to climb walls with ease, but science also suggests that there needs to be a bit more than “spider” or “gecko” power for a person to crawl up a wall. Look on the wall! It’s Velcro Man? Vacuum-Assisted Man?
- Gecko feet rely on van der Waals forces to stick to surfaces so that they can climb smooth vertical walls. However, these forces are too weak to support animals much bigger than geckos without comically large feet. Spiders and insects are small enough to take advantage of the gecko effect, but humans would need a size 114 shoe (or about 80% of the front side of our body area) to climb up a wall. [url]
- Some engineers who really wanted to build something to climb walls made a vacuum-powered contraption to scale a wall like a spider-man. It’s not exactly a stealthy way to move up a wall, but if you don’t mind sounding like a leaf blower…. [url]
- You can also just rent a velcro wall (and wear a velcro suit) if you just want to “stick” to a wall. You might remember David Letterman stuck to a wall of industrial-strength velcro — but he couldn’t really move up or down the wall on his own. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: david letterman, gecko, materials, spiders, superheroes, van der waals forces, velcro, wall-crawling
DailyDirt: This Is Your Brain On Drugs…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Drugs are baaad, mmkay? And it is highly recommended that you NOT take micro-doses of LSD while you’re at work. So just don’t do drugs. Never. (So that when you do…) And check out all the other animals in the animal kingdom that like to get high — cuz if everyone else wanted to jump off a bridge, would you do it, too?
- Dolphins are pretty intelligent creatures — and they apparently suck on puffer fish for fun. Young dolphins ingest a nerve toxin from puffer fish, pass around the fish like a joint, and chill. Marine biologists haven’t seen dolphins get the munchies yet, though. [url]
- Catnip doesn’t work on all cats — just about 70-80% of them — and it only works on cats that are older than 6 months that have reached sexual maturity. Catnip is considered harmless to cats and non-addictive. [url]
- Spiders were first given drugs by scientists in the 1950s — generating some unusual spider web patterns. Research on this strange topic has continued and has even been done by NASA in the 1990s. Clearly, some drugs have an effect on the motor skills of spiders, but it’s not exactly clear what we’ve learned from getting spiders artificially intoxicated. [url]
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: animals, catnip, cats, dolphins, drugs, spiders
DailyDirt: The Strongest Natural Materials
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Mother Nature is actually really good at making some impressively strong and tough materials. Kevlar and steel are pretty strong and useful, but there are a few natural materials that are stronger. Spider silk has been a synthetic target for decades, but being able to create just the spider silk protein isn’t enough to make super strong fibers. Spiders actually produce different kinds of silk for different purposes with different mechanical properties, and the process of spinning spider silk isn’t easy to duplicate without using spiders. If we’re going to use less “plastic” in the future, we might need to figure out how to re-create some unique natural materials.
- The strongest natural material was previously thought to be spider silk, but the teeth of a type of mollusk (a limpet) is apparently stronger — with a very high tensile strength that exceeds spider silk and Kevlar. Limpet teeth consist of protein packed with nanofibers of a mineral called goethite, and this composite material has a unique ability to maintain its strength regardless of its size — usually larger structures tend to break more easily than smaller ones because they contain more flaws. [url]
- Tough seashells and corals are made of calcium carbonate, and it’s been a mystery how this material forms — but a piece of the puzzle has been found. Calcium carbonate can take the form of calcite or aragonite (and usually crystallizes into aragonite in seawater), but when the concentration of magnesium is reduced or eliminated, only calcite will form. If researchers can generalize the ability to predict crystal structure formation, it could have practical applications for a variety of material science problems. [url]
- Spider silk is often cited as being “stronger than steel” with possible applications for bulletproof vests or other amazing things. The problem is actually making spider silk on a large scale — which means making the silk without growing a massive number of spiders. Various methods have been tried, such as using genetically modified bacteria, goats, silkworms, and alfalfa to produce strong silk fibers, but so far, we haven’t quite been able to reproduce desirable spider silk fibers without using spiders. (There is at least one commercial use of spider silk, but it’s used as a powder, not a fiber, for cosmetics.) [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: bioinspiration, biomimicry, calcium carbonate, coral, gmo, goethite, kevlar, limpet teeth, materials, science, seashells, silk, spider silk, spiders, stronger than steel
DailyDirt: Arachnids In Unexpected Places
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
It’s never fun to walk unexpectedly into a spider web because you didn’t see it. And even if you’re not a true arachnophobe, it’s still a bit unsettling to see a spider scurry across a wall or the floor in the way only an eight-legged creature can. If you genuinely like spiders, then you perhaps these stories on finding arachnids in unexpected places will be fascinating. Otherwise, maybe you’d better not read on.
- There are arachnids on your face. Right. Now. Seriously. Okay, so microscopic arachnids — distantly related to spiders and ticks — that live in your facial pores (and on nearly every mammal on the planet) aren’t visible to the naked eye and are generally harmless, but still. [url]
- In 2013, in the Brazilian town of Santo Antonio da Platina, spiders built a big web overhead and the spiders crawled around a disturbingly large area where it looked like spiders were just floating in the sky. A biologist identified the spiders as Anelosimus eximius and said this wasn’t an unusual event for other cities like Sao Paulo — so you’ve been warned, folks. [url]
- Mazda issued a recall for 42,000 cars because the yellow sac spider likes to crawl into Mazda engines through a fuel tank hose and potentially cause a fire. Apparently, these particular spiders like Mazda vehicles because this isn’t the only recall issued due to these little guys crawling into Mazdas. Zoom-Zoom! Yikes! [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: anelosimus eximius, animals, arachnids, arachnophobia, biology, car recalls, spiders
Companies: mazda
DailyDirt: Scary Spiders…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
If you don’t like the look of spiders, you’re not alone. Some folks think that if you learn more about spiders, the less afraid you’ll be of them. Maybe that’s true. Maybe. Spiders exhibit all kinds of fascinating behaviors… and you’ll have to decide for yourself if knowing about these spider traits makes them more or less scary for you. Here are just a few links to haunt your nightmares.
- Typically, everyone thinks spiders just eat flies and don’t bother us larger creatures, but there are some spiders all over the world that eat fish. Spiders are also known to eat shrimp and frogs… [url]
- Spider families apparently cooperate quite a bit, and older spider siblings help out their younger siblings to hunt down prey. This practice boosts the health of the entire family of spiders and helps carry on the family genes. [url]
- Some spiders build fake spider decoys from leaves, twigs, dead insect parts.. to confuse spider predators. These fake decoys aren’t quite as scary as the shell of a tarantula after it’s finished molting, but they don’t need to be that good to help a spider avoid becoming some other creature’s lunch. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: arachnophobia, decoys, predators, prey, spiders
DailyDirt: Tarantulas!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Tarantulas are huge, hairy, and venomous. Thankfully, these giant spiders look creepier than they are dangerous — for humans, at least. While they do pack a painful bite, their venom is actually less potent than a bee’s. There are hundreds of species of tarantulas that have already been identified. Here are a few more.
- A new species of tree-dwelling tarantula that’s about the size of an Alien facehugger has been discovered in Sri Lanka. It has a leg span of about 8 inches across, and has unique and colorful leg and abdominal markings. It’s a type of tiger spider, which are known for being colorful, fast, and venomous. [url]
- Several colorful new tree-dwelling tarantulas have been discovered in Brazil. Red, pink, orange, yellow, and blue are just some of the colors that can be found on these spiders. Apparently, scientists are actually concerned that people will want these colorful tarantulas as pets. [url]
- An asbestos-covered tarantula might be on the loose in Cardiff, Wales. Workers who were removing asbestos from an abandoned house found a large molted tarantula skin in the attic, which means the spider could be roaming around town somewhere covered in asbestos. While it’s not a new species (experts think it’s a Chilean rose tarantula), it could actually be up to twice as large as the molted skin, since tarantulas swell in size after shedding their skin… [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: asbestos, biology, colorful, species, spiders, tarantulas
DailyDirt: Interesting Spider Behavior
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
People tend to have an irrational fear of spiders, which are more often than not completely harmless and also beneficial because they help control the insect pest population around homes and gardens. Perhaps, instead of focusing on their “creepiness,” people should learn about how cool these little creatures really are. Here are a few examples of some interesting behavior in spiders.
- Yes, spiders eat bats too. Apparently, bat-eating spiders live on every continent (except Antarctica). Most of them catch bats in their webs, but huntsman spiders and tarantulas have been observed eating bats on forest floors. [url]
- Spiders can adapt to zero-gravity. A “Johnson Jumper” spider named Nefertiti survived 100 days on the International Space Station, during which it demonstrated a new technique for catching fruit flies in zero-gravity. Instead of jumping on its prey, it would sidle up to it. [url]
- Contrary to popular belief, spiders can be sociable. Of the more than 43,678 species of spiders out there, about 24 social spider species have been identified. In a most recent discovery, researchers found that females from a social species of spider called Chikunia nigra were surprisingly tolerant of other spiders from the same colony and were willing to look after another’s eggs/hatchlings as if they were her own. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: bats, behavior, biology, nefertiti, species, spiders
DailyDirt: Spooky Spiders…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Halloween is coming up, so there will be plenty of plastic spiders and fake cobwebs decorating suburban homes. But real spiders have been known to swarm over small towns and envelope sizable areas with acres of their webbing. If you’re not too comfortable around spiders, you might not want to read further. But if huge spider populations sound more cool than creepy to you, here are just a few examples of arachnids taking over.
- The Indian town of Sadiya was overrun with spiders — venomous ones that weren’t known to be native to the area. Out of dozens of reported bites, two people died — but the deaths might have been caused by inept medical treatments. [url]
- An invasive snake killed off a significant population of forest birds in Guam, causing the spider population to grow to forty times that of nearby islands. Normally, birds compete with spiders over eating insects, so when the birds died out, the spiders had an all-you-can-eat insect buffet. [url]
- Flooding in Wagga Wagga (Australia) forced spiders to seek higher ground to avoid drowning. The standing water caused an increase in the insect population and also resulted in vast blankets of spider webs covering fields like snow. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Filed Under: arachnophobia, halloween, invasive, spiders, swarm, venom
DailyDirt: Spiders, Man!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Spiders are just fascinating creatures — not only because they have a crazy number of appendages, but also because they create intricate webs and seem to have incredibly complex behaviors for such small animals. To top it off, we’re learning something new about the properties of spider silk all the time. Here are just a few examples.
- Japanese researchers have used spider silk as violin strings. This is what it sounds like when
dovesflies cry…. [url] - Surprisingly, certain spider silk is an excellent conductor of heat — better than silicon, aluminum or iron — and becomes more conductive as it stretches. Silk threads from “golden silk orbweavers” could teach us more about thermal conductivity and have applications in heat sinks or textile fiber technology. [url]
- It took a million spiders to produce enough silk to make an 11’x4′ rug. It also took 70 people four years to collect all that silk. [url]
- To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: biology, heat conductor, materials, silk, spider silk, spider silk rug, spiders, violins
DailyDirt: Sneaky Little Spiders
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Spiders exhibit a wide variety of fascinating behaviors that are intriguingly complex. They don’t just build nice webs and trap unsuspecting insects. Spiders have bizarre mating rituals that seem to suggest a surprising amount of intelligence for their size. Here are just a few examples.
- Some crafty male spiders court attractive females by giving them gifts wrapped in silk — but sometimes the gifts turn out to be inedible seeds or empty insect exoskeletons. Female spiders prefer edible gifts (chocolates, not flowers, guys), but in the end, they lay the same number of fertilized eggs regardless of whether or not the gift is appreciated. [url]
- What can a male spider do when the females of its species are known to eat their mates? In at least two spider species, the males snap off their genitals inside their mates. Evolutionary pressures can be painful… ouch. [url]
- Male wolf spiders have been observed to “eavesdrop” on their competition in order to outdo the mating dances of their rivals. Researchers came to this conclusion by letting spiders watch video screens of other male spiders dancing… and observing them pick up some cool new moves. [url]
- To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: animals, behavior, gifts, intelligence, spiders