What is a Blue dragon?

Also known as blue sea slugs, blue angels, and sea swallows, the blue dragons, or Glaucus atlanticus, are part of a group of creatures known as nudibranchs or sea slugs.
A few weeks ago, a beautiful blue creature was spotted in large numbers on the coast of the Indian city of Chennai. This occurred after the floods following the cyclone Michaung that hit the city. This poisonous deep sea creature called blue dragon attracted much attention among the public who were warned not to touch them. Now what is the blue dragon?

They are seen to drift away in the temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. But what helps the blue dragons stay afloat? It is an air bubble stored in their stomach that helps the sea creature in this.

While these creatures are tiny, growing to just about 1.2 inches long, they consume creatures that are many times their size, such as the Portuguese man o' war. When threatened, the blue dragons will sting. Their sting is venomous because of their diet which includes  venomous creatures such as the Portuguese man o' war. They store the stinging nematocysts from the creatures they feed on and release these stinging cells when threatened. Even after they die, their venom remains active.

The creature is known for its camouflage capabilities. When floating, the blue underbellies against the ocean's blue colour camouflage them from predators above water. Meanwhile, the dull-coloured backside blends in with the bright surface of the water. This gives them protection from predators below. Blue dragons are hermaphrodites, that is, they have both male and female reproductive organs.

In many locations worldwide, blue dragons are being spotted for the first time and experts attribute reasons such as the warming ocean, increased storm activity, changes in Portuguese man o' war populations, and so on.

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WHAT IS AMAZING ABOUT BLUE WHALES?

The blue whale, the largest known living animal on our planet, can be as large as an aeroplane and can weigh around 200 tonnes! A newborn blue whale is as big as a bus! What is interesting is that these giants mainly feed on tiny, shrimp- like sea animals called krill, which they filter out of the water in their mouths. They can eat around four tones of krill on a day!

1. Blue Whales Can Grow More Than 100 Feet Long

They are gigantic. Generally ranging in length from 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters), the longest one ever recorded was a magnificent 108 feet (33 meters) long. That's about as long as three school buses lined up end to end.

2. They Can Weigh as Much as 30 Elephants

The average weight for these gentle giants is 200,000 to 300,000 pounds (90,000 to 136,000 kilograms), or about 100 to 150 tons. Some can weigh as much as 441,000 pounds (200,000 kg), or 220 tons. For comparison, an adult African bush elephant weighs up to 6 tons, so it may take 30 or more elephants to equal the weight of one blue whale.

3. They Have Big Hearts

The blue whale's heart is huge. It's the largest heart in the animal kingdom, weighing about 400 pounds (180 kg) and roughly the size of a bumper car. As a blue whale dives to feed, its giant heart may only beat twice per minute.

4. They Have Big Tongues, Too

A blue whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as some elephants.

5. They Have the Biggest Babies on Earth

Blue whale calves are the biggest babies on Earth, easily, and at birth already rank among the largest full-grown animals. They pop out at around 8,800 pounds (4,000 kg) with a length of some 26 feet (8 meters). They gain 200 pounds (90 kg) a day! Their growth rate is likely one of the fastest in the animal world, with a several billion-fold increase in tissue in the 18 months from conception to weaning.

6. They’re Unusually Loud

Blue whales, in fact, are the loudest animals on the planet. A jet engine registers at 140 decibels; the call of a blue whale reaches 188. Their language of pulses, groans, and moans can be heard by others up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

7. They Eat a Lot of Krill

Blue whales feast on krill; their stomachs can hold 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) of the tiny crustaceans at a time. They require almost 9,000 pounds (4,000 kg) of the little guys a day, and around 40 million krill daily during the summer feeding season.

8. They're Pretty Fast

They travel a lot, spending summers feeding in polar regions and making the long trip to the equator as winter comes along. While they have a cruising speed of 5 mph (8 kph), they can accelerate up to 20 mph (32 kph) when needed.

9. They Have Long Life Spans

Blue whales are among the planet’s longest-lived animals. Kind of like counting tree rings, scientists count layers of wax in the ears and can determine a ballpark age. The oldest blue whale they’ve discovered this way was calculated to be around 100 years old, though the average life is thought to last around 80 to 90 years.

10. They Once Were Abundant

Before whalers discovered the treasure trove of oil that a blue whale could provide, the species was plentiful. But with the advent of 20th-century whaling fleets, their population plummeted until finally receiving worldwide protection in 1967. From 1904 to 1967, more than 350,000 blue whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In 1931, during the heyday of whaling, an astounding 29,000 blue whales were killed in a single season.

11. Their Future Remains Uncertain

While commercial whaling is no longer a threat, recovery has been slow and new threats plague blue whales, like ship strikes and the impact of climate change. There is one population of around 2,000 blue whales off the coast of California, but all told there are only around 10,000 to 25,000 individuals left. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered. Hopefully with time, the planet’s largest gentle giants will again roam the seas aplenty.

Save the Blue Whale

  • Look for seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which can help reduce the prevalence of fishing gear known to entangle blue whales.
  • If you ever see a blue whale, keep your distance — for its safety and yours.
  • Watch your speed and keep a sharp lookout if you're ever on a watercraft in potential blue whale habitat. Boat collisions can seriously injure blue whales.

Credit :  Treehugger.com

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WHAT IS ZOOPLANKTON?

Zooplankton is an aquatic microorganism that drifts with water currents. It is one of the two types of plankton, the other being phytoplankton, a plant variety. Zooplankton and other small marine animals consume phytoplankton. They themselves become food for fish, crustaceans, and other larger creatures. As an intermediary species, zooplankton plays a crucial role in the aquatic food chain. As ocean waters warm, studies suggest zooplankton is travelling towards the Poles, which could end in an ecological collapse.

Body size has been defined as a "master trait" for plankton as it is a morphological characteristic shared by organisms across taxonomy that characterises the functions performed by organisms in ecosystems. It has a paramount effect on growth, reproduction, feeding strategies and mortality.One of the oldest manifestations of the biogeography of traits was proposed over 170 years ago, namely Bergmann's rule, in which field observations showed that larger species tend to be found at higher, colder latitudes

Zooplankton are generally larger than phytoplankton, mostly still microscopic but some can be seen with the naked eye.Many protozoans (single-celled protists that prey on other microscopic life) are zooplankton, including zooflagellates, foraminiferans, radiolarians, some dinoflagellates and marine microanimals. Macroscopic zooplankton include pelagic cnidarians, ctenophores, molluscs, arthropods and tunicates, as well as planktonic arrow worms and bristle worms.

Zooplankton is a categorization spanning a range of organism sizes including small protozoans and large metazoans. It includes holoplanktonic organisms whose complete life cycle lies within the plankton, as well as meroplanktonic organisms that spend part of their lives in the plankton before graduating to either the nekton or a sessile, benthic existence. Although zooplankton are primarily transported by ambient water currents, many have locomotion, used to avoid predators (as in diel vertical migration) or to increase prey encounter rate.

Ecologically important protozoan zooplankton groups include the foraminiferans, radiolarians and dinoflagellates (the last of these are often mixotrophic). Important metazoan zooplankton include cnidarians such as jellyfish and the Portuguese Man o' War; crustaceans such as cladocerans, copepods, ostracods, isopods, amphipods, mysids and krill; chaetognaths (arrow worms); molluscs such as pteropods; and chordates such as salps and juvenile fish. This wide phylogenetic range includes a similarly wide range in feeding behavior: filter feeding, predation and symbiosis with autotrophic phytoplankton as seen in corals. Zooplankton feed on bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, other zooplankton (sometimes cannibalistically), detritus (or marine snow) and even nektonic organisms. As a result, zooplankton are primarily found in surface waters where food resources (phytoplankton or other zooplankton) are abundant.

Just as any species can be limited within a geographical region, so are zooplankton. However, species of zooplankton are not dispersed uniformly or randomly within a region of the ocean. As with phytoplankton, ‘patches’ of zooplankton species exist throughout the ocean. Though few physical barriers exist above the mesopelagic, specific species of zooplankton are strictly restricted by salinity and temperature gradients; while other species can withstand wide temperature and salinity gradients. Zooplankton patchiness can also be influenced by biological factors, as well as other physical factors. Biological factors include breeding, predation, concentration of phytoplankton, and vertical migration.The physical factor that influences zooplankton distribution the most is mixing of the water column (upwelling and downwelling along the coast and in the open ocean) that affects nutrient availability and, in turn, phytoplankton production.

Through their consumption and processing of phytoplankton and other food sources, zooplankton play a role in aquatic food webs, as a resource for consumers on higher trophic levels (including fish), and as a conduit for packaging the organic material in the biological pump. Since they are typically small, zooplankton can respond rapidly to increases in phytoplankton abundance, for instance, during the spring bloom. Zooplankton are also a key link in the biomagnification of pollutants such as mercury.

Zooplankton can also act as a disease reservoir. Crustacean zooplankton have been found to house the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, by allowing the cholera vibrios to attach to their chitinous exoskeletons. This symbiotic relationship enhances the bacterium's ability to survive in an aquatic environment, as the exoskeleton provides the bacterium with carbon and nitrogen.

Credit : Wikipedia 

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WHY IS OCTOPUS BLOOD BLUE?

The octopus is a surprisingly complex creature and, quite possibly, the world's original "blue blood." Its 500 million neurons are distributed throughout its head and body, compared to the 100 billion neurons in our brains. The octopus's brain power isn't easily apparent at first glance, but it's proven itself capable of planning, reasoning and -- predicting sporting matchups. On the planning front, researchers have discovered that octopuses in Indonesia will gather coconut shell halves in preparation for stormy weather, then take shelter by going inside the two pieces of shell and holding it shut.

So what makes these smart sea creatures so adaptable? The ability is literally in their blood. The same pigment that gives the octopus blood its blue color, hemocyanin, is responsible for keeping the species alive at extreme temperatures. Hemocyanin is a blood-borne protein containing copper atoms that bind to an equal number of oxygen atoms. It's part of the blood plasma in invertebrates.

Blue-hued hemocyanin binds to oxygen in the blood and transports it throughout the octopus's body to supply tissues, a critical factor in its survival. Octopuses have three hearts and need more oxygen than most other invertebrates, so the hemocyanin allows octopuses to get a steady oxygen supply, even when it isn't readily available in their environment. It also ensures that they survive in temperatures that would be deadly for many creatures, ranging from temperatures as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 1.8 degrees Celsius) to superheated temperatures near the ocean's thermal vents.

Researchers suspect the "blue blood" adaptation is the result of the octopus's inability to migrate away from challenging environmental conditions.

Credit : How stuff works

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WHAT ARE THE FUN FACTS ABOUT DUGONG?

A Dugong (family: Dugongidae) is the only herbivorous marine mammal found in deep waters. Dugong is a mammal that is closely related to elephants. It is a huge bulbous animal who is usually grey brown in color. Like whales, they have flattened fluked tail, a distinctive head shape, paddle like flippers but do not have any dorsal fin. The dugong is a marine mammal that is the only herbivore found in the deep waters that eats seagrass. Dugongs, even though they resemble a manatee, do not belong to the family of manatees. They weigh less than manatees and have different physical characteristics. Their rarity and the decreasing population are a great threat to their extinction. Issues like degradation of sea beds and illegal fishing traps are a major threat to the Dugong population.

There are very few dugongs that live in shallow waters of Australia, the Indian, and Pacific Ocean. Dugongs are listed as creatures that are vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN Red List. The numbers of these beautiful sea creatures are decreasing day by day due to the loss of seagrass beds and pollution of water which disrupts their habitation. Illegal fishing and fishing of dugongs for consumption and trade also is causing their population to decrease. They cannot live in freshwater and can tolerate marine water. Dugongs communicate by emitting sounds which are similar to chirps, whistles, barks that travel through water. They also communicate through sounds that echo underwater. They are also found in oceans around United States.

A dugong is a marine mammal that is native to the Great Barrier reef, world’s largest coral reef in the continent of Australia. The coastal shallow water around Australia were home to more than 85,000 animals but dugong populations are constantly decreasing across the world and they are highly endangered. The dugong species is hunted to extinction as well as traded to different countries illegally. Dugongs mostly live a sedentary lifestyle and migrate for miles in search of seagrass. Some dugongs prefer living in pairs, while sometimes, a herd of 7-10 Dugongs can be seen habituated. The herd or a group of dugong is called a nutcluster.

Dugongs have a lifespan of 70 years and give birth to only one calf during reproduction. They spend most of their time nursing and tending to their offspring. Low litter count and elongated weaning periods are also the reason why the gugong population is depleting. Young dugong calves are easy prey for crocodiles and sharks, which again contributes to population decrease.

Credit :  Kidadl

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Where can we see funnel-web spiders?

The funnel-web spiders get their name from their webs which are shaped like a funnel. The funnel’s mouth opens wide, and the spider sits patiently in the narrow part. When an insect prey touches the web, the spider rushes out to capture it. At least 40 species have been identified among these spiders, several of them carrying highly toxic venom. Especially dangerous is the male of Atrax robustus, or the Sydney funnel-web spider, which has caused many deaths. It has become part of Sydney’s folklore. An antivenom for its toxin was introduced in 1981.

Funnel-web spiders mainly live in eastern Australia, in the moist forest regions and highlands. They can be from 1 cm to 5 cm in body length, with the females more heavily built than the males. The front part of their body is covered with a carapace which is sparsely haired and glossy, and the colour of the body can vary from black to brown.

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Which is the largest spider in the world?

The Goliath birdeater tarantula from South America is the largest spider in the world. Weighing up to 170 gm, its legs can reach up to one foot. Hunting at night, its diet mainly comprises earthworms, insects and frogs.

The Goliath bird-eating tarantula lives in the rainforest regions of northern South America, including Venezuela, northern Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. It lives in the deep rainforest, in silk-lined burrows and under rocks and roots.

If they need to defend themselves, they rub hairs together to create a hissing noise loud enough to be heard 15 feet away. They can also let their hairs loose and fling them at attackers. The goliath bird-eating spider may also rear up on its hind legs to show its large fangs as a further defense strategy. If they need to defend themselves, they rub hairs together to create a hissing noise loud enough to be heard 15 feet away. They can also let their hairs loose and fling them at attackers. The goliath bird-eating spider may also rear up on its hind legs to show its large fangs as a further defense strategy.

After their maturation molt, males develop a "finger" on the underside of the first set of front legs that is used to hook and lock the female's fangs and to steady themselves while they mate. After mating, males die within a few months.

The female must have recently molted in order to reproduce, or acquired sperm will be lost during the molt. Once mated, the female makes a web in which she lays 50 to 200 eggs that become fertilized as they pass out of her body. The female then wrap the eggs into a ball, and, unlike other species of tarantula, the female carries the egg sac with her. Egg sacs are almost the size of a tennis ball and contain around 70 spiderlings.

In order to grow, they must go through several molts. Molting is the process by which the tarantula sheds its old exoskeleton and emerges in a new, larger one. Spiderlings can be expected to molt five or six times in their first year. They take around two to three years to reach maturity.

Credit : Smithonian National Zoo

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What happens when a tarantula hawk stings a tarantula?

The tarantula hawk, a kind of large parasitic wasp, paralyses a tarantula spider with its sting and then lays an egg into the spider so that when the egg hatches the larva will have enough food to feed on for weeks together. Its sting is considered to be one of the most powerful insect stings on Earth.

In most cases, tarantula hawks won’t sting unless you bother them first. They’re similar to wasps in that they are incredibly bold, but it would take stepping on one or picking one up for you to receive a sting.

If you do get stung, you’ve had some bad luck, as the sting of the tarantula hawk wasp is rumored to be one of the most intense, painful stings of all insects. Because their stingers are so large, very few animals eat them, and as a result, they have few natural predators.

Luckily, the sting is not dangerous, unless you are unfortunate enough to develop an allergic reaction. The area where you are stung may remain red for up to a week, but the pain from most stings subsides within just a few minutes.

To treat the sting, make sure you wash the site with antibacterial soap and warm water. This will reduce the likelihood of an infection. You can apply a cold compress, ice, or topical cortisone or antihistamine to relieve the pain, itch, and swelling.

Credit : Rest Easy Pest Control 

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What is an invasive species?

Northern Georgia has been besieged by millions of giant arachnids called Joro spiders. These brightly coloured East Asian spiders have draped parts of more than 25 counties in the State with their thick webs. Porches, mail boxes and gardens have all been taken over by the spiders, prompting a flood of anxious social media posts by the residents.

Joro spiders are part of a group of spiders known as "orb weavers" common to China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. They spin symmetrical circular webs and use their venom to immobile prey that get caught in their webs. The venom, however, poses no threat to human beings.

How did the Asian spiders end up in the U.S.? Scientists believe that the spiders hitch-hiked to Georgia through shipping containers. The spiders were first spotted here in 2014 and since then their population and range have expanded steadily across the state, but nothing prepared residents or researchers for the number of spiders they would face this year. Experts believe that the invasive species could spread even farther into other parts of the United States.

Invasive? What does that mean?

Invasive species are organisms that migrate to or are introduced to a new geographical location, where they pose a threat to the environment. They could be insects, plants, animals or pathogens. These species start to grow and multiply quickly in the absence of natural predators from their original homes.

How do invasive species spread?

  • Some species arrive in a new area through migration.
  • Some are spread unintentionally by human activities. When people travel they often inadvertently carry alien species along. For instance, insects may arrive in a new place by travelling on luggages.
  • Some species are introduced on purpose as pets or to combat pests, which turn out to be invasive in the new place.

Why are they considered threats?

Invasive species cause harm to the ecosystem in many ways.

  • In the absence of natural predators, a new and aggressive species can breed, spread quickly and overrun the local habitat. Native species may not have evolved defences against the invader, further boosting the invaders growth.
  • The threats from an invasive species also include preying on native species and outcompeting them for resources, thereby restricting the growth of native species. Some invasive species are capable of changing the conditions in an ecosystem, such as the soil chemistry.
  • Invasive species can change the food web in an ecosystem by destroying native food sources. People who depend on the ecosystem's native resources will also be affected.

However, some scientists are optimistic that the Joro spiders, though invasive, could actually bring unexpected benefits. They could act as natural pest control as they kill off mosquitoes, biting flies and stink bugs that damage crops.

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How many eyes do most spiders have?

Most spiders have eight eyes. Some have no eyes and others have as many as 12 eyes. Most can detect only between light and dark, while others have well-developed vision. Experiments have demonstrated that some spiders can recognize and respond to specific shapes on television monitors. However they're equipped to see, all spiders have highly evolved systems to detect prey and danger.

Some spiders can't see at all. Most spiders don't see very well. Many have eyes that only help them distinguish between light and dark. Only a few species can see well in enough detail to be able to hunt prey effectively.

Those facts may surprise some people. Why? Because spiders have so many eyes! Most spiders have eight eyes. Some species have six or fewer eyes, but they always come in an even number.

Some species of spiders, such as those that live in caves or under the soil, have no eyes at all. Even those species with eight eyes don't usually see very well. For example, most spiders that spin webs have poor eyesight and rely upon their senses of touch and smell to navigate their webs and find prey.

Credit : Wonderopolis 

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Do all spiders weave webs?

Although webs are the most well-known use for spider silk, not all spiders make webs to catch their prey. In fact, less than half of the 37 spider families in Britain do.

However, even spiders that don't make webs have uses for silk, including creating moulting platforms, sperm webs for males, and retreats.

Jan adds, 'Jumping spiders, for example, make little silken cells in which to hide in during the day - a bit like a sleeping bag.'

Most spiders use silk to wrap their eggs. Ballooning is another spectacular use for silk, allowing the mass dispersal of spiderlings and small adults.

Spiders that don’t build webs catch their prey by other means,  such as ambushing it from a hole in the ground (like trapdoors spiders), or stalking it and leaping on it (like jumping spiders). Those that don’t construct webs still use silk, but for other purposes. These include building retreats, safety drag-lines (constantly connected as the spider moves around) and for dispersal in a process called ballooning. One of the most common uses of silk in the spider world is in the construction of egg sacs that are used to protect their eggs.  

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What did ancient Greeks use for bandages?

Did you know spiderwebs were used as bandages to treat injuries in ancient times? Spiderwebs are made of spider silk. They were believed to have antiseptic and anti-fungal properties. They helped prevent infection and were said to promote clotting of blood. Now research in spider silk is going on all over the world to explore its relevance to areas of medicine and industry.

If you are in midst of a forest, and get cut by a machete and there’s profuse bleeding, what do you do? You find a cobweb. Funny as it may sound, putting a bunch of cobweb on your wound will make the blood coagulate much faster. Thanks to those thousands of strands of nanowires which act as nucleation lines.

Besides that, since the cobwebs are proteins basically, they are good places for fungi and bacteria to grow. So, the spider knows that and has evolved to keep these bacterial and fungi growths away from its web. Cobwebs are in fact antiseptic and antifungal too. As long as the web is clean, it will not cause any kind of infection if you put it on an open wound.

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What are the fun facts of tarantula?

It belongs to a group, which consists of 700 species of hairy spiders. Unlike most spiders, it does not spin webs to catch prey, rather use silk to secure the entrance to its burrow. It typically lives in the ground.

It is a night-time hunter. It uses its legs to catch prey, which includes insects. Some of the bigger tarantula species enjoy frogs, toads and mice.

After catching a prey, it injects paralyzing venom into it. It secretes digestive enzymes to liquefy its body and drink it using its straw-like mouth openings.

It defends itself by throwing needle-like, barbed hairs at its attackers.

One of the most distinctive traits of many tarantulas is the presence of bristly hairs on their bodies, including their legs. Although this looks like hair and is commonly described as such, spiders and other arthropods do not have true hair like mammals do. Mammalian hair is mainly made of keratin, while arthropod setae consists largely of chitin.

Tarantulas are long-lived spiders, although their life spans vary by sex as well as species. Male tarantulas may live for as long as 10 years, but once they successfully mate, they usually die within a few months. Female tarantulas, on the other hand, have been known to live for 30 years.

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What is arachnida?

Arachnida is a class of joint-legged invertebrates with segmented bodies, tough exoskeletons, and joint appendages. Arachnida includes orders containing spiders (the largest order), scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and solifuges.

Almost all adult arachnids have eight legs, unlike adult insects which all have six legs. However, arachnids also have two further pairs of appendages that have become adapted for feeding, defense, and sensory perception. The first pair, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense. The next pair of appendages, the pedipalps, have been adapted for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palps are quite leg-like, so that these animals appear to have ten legs. The larvae of mites and Ricinulei have only six legs; a fourth pair usually appears when they moult into nymphs. However, mites are variable: as well as eight, there are adult mites with six or even four legs.

Like all arthropods, arachnids have an exoskeleton, and they also have an internal structure of cartilage-like tissue, called the endosternite, to which certain muscle groups are attached. The endosternite is even calcified in some Opiliones.

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There’s music in spider webs, say MIT researchers

Spiders are fascinating creatures. Master builders who expertly weave strands of silk into intricate webs, spiders use these both as their home and their hunting grounds. Human beings have been enthralled by the spider's ways and there have been many who have wished to enter the spiders world to learn more about web construction and arachnid behaviour.

Notes from the web

In April 2021, a group of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) along with collaborators at Studio Tomas Saraceno reported a way of translating the structure of spider's web into music. As spiders live in an environment of vibrating strings with different frequencies, which they use to sense the world around them, researchers decided to extract these rhythms of non-human origin and convert them to music.

In order to achieve their objective, a laser was used to capture the spider web. The 2D cross-sections thus obtained were then reconstructed into a 3D web network using the aid of computer algorithms. Next, different frequencies of sound were assigned to each strand of a web, thereby creating notes. These were combined based on the web's patterns to create melodies. By creating a harp-like instrument, the researchers then played the spider web music in a number of live performances around the world.

3D printing

Apart from the wow factor that such a research provides and the fact that it could act as musical inspiration as well, researchers have identified a number of other uses that might come in handy. After gaining insights into how spiders build their webs, the step-by-step knowledge could be used in constructing 3D printers that mimic these spiders and hence might be able to build complex electronic circuits.

Communication with spiders

Additionally, these experiments showed that an algorithm was able to correctly classify spider sounds into different activities, even though they sounded similar to human ears. This means that the time when human beings learn how to communicate with spiders in their own language may not be that far away!

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