Spider Web Tuning 101


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This amusing video from NPR explains how spiders "tune" their webs in a similar manner as a musician tunes a stringed instrument. Spiders may tighten or loosen the silk strands of their webs to achieve variation in the way each strand vibrates. The sensors in the spider's legs "read" the vibrations to gain information, such as the location of an insect newly trapped in the web. The spider's web must be "tuned" in a certain way in order for the process to work. Scientists learned this information during research recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Learn more in this article at NPR online. Via Twisted Sifter. 


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Fact #1: National Coffee Day is a lame marketing gimmick by the National Coffee Association, who represents the big box coffee retailers who promote quantity over quality. Basically, it's a fake holiday to keep reminding everyone to keep drinking the cheap stuff.
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