Posted on 07/05/2018 11:01:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Sometimes, when it rains or when they feel the urge to migrate, spiders get out their little silk knapsacks, and balloon away.
This ballooning behaviour is well understood by spider scientists, but researchers have recently discovered that electric fields can not only trigger the behaviour, but also provide lift – even without the slightest breeze...
They travel via the atmospheric potential gradient (APG), an electric circuit between Earth and the ionosphere - the part of Earth's upper atmosphere that's ionised by solar radiation.
Thunderstorms act like a giant battery for the APG, charging up and maintaining the electric fields in the atmosphere.
The researchers explain that the idea of ballooning behaviour being caused by this electric circuit was first floated in the 1800's, but had been dismissed not long after, without being tested...
Morley and Roberts... caught spiders from the genius Erigone from a balloon trap, and set up an experiment without stimuli such as air movement or atmospheric electricity. Then they turned on an artificial electric field and watched what would happen.
The team did indeed find that the spiders went ballooning when the field was on, and the field's electrostatic forces alone were enough to power the movement; it's the same force that lifts up your hair if you rub a balloon on your head.
When the researchers switched off the electric field, the spiders would glide down; turning the field on made them move upwards (those spiders would have been so confused)...
Spiders have sensory hairs called trichobothria that would move in response to the electric field, which the researchers believe is what the spiders use to detect the APG.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
Spiderman Spiderman he can do anything a spider can...
There is your earworm for today.
(Good to see your moniker)
5.56mm
From Metibelis 3.
Someone tell me how this evolved.
>Eight legs. You know the spider’s number system will be octal.
Yes, three bit bytes
Sometimes ours is too...
4 dram = 1 Tablespoon
2 Tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce
4 fluid ounces = 1 gil
2 gil = 1 cup
2 cups = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
2 quarts = 1 pottle
2 pottles = 1 gallon
...Sort of.
I don’t believe I’ve heard of a pottle before. Learn something new everyday.
Yeah. I think it got dropped from every day measure because it sounds too close to bottle...
Alright! Put on the popcorn!
It’s ‘’does whatever a spider can’’. Now that set of lyrics will get an earworm in you that you’ll never get out!
ALL HAIL OUR NEW ARACHNID OVERLORDS!!
Kinda makes me wish I were a spider. :^)
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