Spider Weaves a Web in Space



(Video link)

A national education program being carried out right now on the International Space Station involves watching the behavior or animals and insects in microgravity. This video is of Esmerelda, a golden silk orb-weaver spider (Nephila clavipes), weaving a web in her new low-gravity home. Typically, an orb-weaver will spin an asymmetrical web, but researchers have noticed that those spun by the two spiders on the ISS are becoming more circular. In addition, the spiders no longer sit at the tops of their webs facing downwards, and are instead hanging out in all sorts of positions to look out for their captured prey--something that doesn't happen here on Earth.

Read more about the experiment and the oddities in Esmeralda's behavior on New Scientist. Link


12 bazillion dollars to launch that thing into space and the best we can get is some black & white out of focus video that looks like it was shot by a 5th grader?

Geeeeeesh NASA, stick to robot probes which are excellent, your manned space program is just plain embarrassing (look we got spiders 200 miles off the surface - yippee).
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Never mind micro gravity. I want to study spiders in mega gravity. After a few generations in my centrifuge my arachnid army will become giants weaving silken webs of death. No fair stealing my idea, NASA.
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Nasa might want to quit sending spiders into space, I don't think an alien civilization would forgive us if we accidentally inflicted them on another unfortunate planet...
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I remember their ant experiement before space shuttle Columbia blew up in its landing :(:

http://antfarm.yuku.com/forum/viewtopic/id/1800

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0129_030129_spaceants.html

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030117day2/

http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/space/6/sts107_stars_experiments/23181/
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