|
Home > News > Tags > spiders
|
|
30
A collaboration of investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy, was recently able to determine how a spider web is so resistant, and capable of enduring high levels of tear and stress.
The resilience of spider web is legendary among scientists, who have... |
2 February 2012
02:55 GMT |
 |
|
Investigators at the University of Barcelona, in Spain, say that the collision which occurred between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates – some 30 million years ago - opened up the Mediterranean Basin, but also drove a boost in the diversity of spider species living in the area.
The tectonic event prim... |
1 February 2012
16:31 GMT |
|
|
According to scientists, more than 50 percent of all newly-found species are insects, which makes this class of living organisms the most unexplored on the planet. This is also highlighted in the latest issue of the International Institute for Species Exploration's (IISE) annual ‘State of Observed Species&... |
19 January 2012
18:01 GMT |
|
|
Genetically-modified silkworms have been a goal for breeders for years. The most important goal that researchers tried for was to insert spider silk proteins into the silkworms, so that the latter would have been able to produce stronger silk. After years of failure, that objective was finally reached.
Successful c... |
4 January 2012
09:55 GMT |
|
|
Tiny hairs on the legs of spiders apparently act as individual ears, allowing the creature to feel the moves their prey makes through the air. Thus far, researchers believes that all of these hairs were acting as components for a single, large ear that was the entire exoskeleton protecting spiders.
This idea was ref... |
15 December 2011
03:06 GMT |
|
|
Even before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was launched a group of players announced that they would be unable to buy and play the game because the game had a very realistic portrayal of spiders which triggered their arachnophobia.On the good old PC their problems are now solved because one of the first things that mod ... |
14 November 2011
05:14 GMT |
|
|
During the second half of 2010, Pakistan was severely affected by floods. The effects of the disastrous events were seen even from satellites and astronauts in space, but some of them have eluded detection until recently. Such is the case of tree-based spider colonies. As 20 percent of the country's territory be... |
31 March 2011
03:25 GMT |
|
|
In an advancement that could enable the large-scale production of super-strong, tough and flexible silk, researchers managed to manipulate silkworms in such a manner that they can now produce silk that is stronger than steel.With the recent genetic breakthrough, a single colony of transgenic silkworms was able to pro... |
4 October 2010
11:09 GMT |
|
|
Silkworms and spiders may seem like small insects to us, but they are the keepers of a secret that scientists would pay a mind-boggling sum of money to learn. These creatures are the only ones that can produce natural silk, a material that is highly-flexible, yet tougher than steel and Kevlar. The compound has been w... |
30 July 2010
06:52 GMT |
|
|
When it comes to mimicking nature, researchers oftentimes find themselves in a bind. This is especially true for structures such as gecko feet and spider webs, both of which take “natural engineering” to new extremes. Spider silk is, for example, known to be one of the strongest materials out there today.... |
13 May 2010
05:01 GMT |
|
|
Scientists proposed some time ago that some of the most basic and widespread phobias people have may be innate, as in inherited even before birth. The most common ones are arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), and investigators say that this makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point... |
18 February 2010
06:31 GMT |
|
|
Chinese experts have recently unearthed one of the most well-preserved fossils ever. It was left behind by a type of spider known as Eoplectreurys gertschi, of which only two other specimens were ever recovered. However, the newly discovered one is more than 120 million years older than its “peers,” as it... |
9 February 2010
05:47 GMT |
|
|
One of the largest spiders of its class was recently discovered in Israel, by a team of biologists based at the University of Haifa-Oranim. Dubbed Cerbalus aravensis, the new arachnid is mostly nocturnal, and becomes most active in the hottest months of the year, for a reason still unknown to researchers. The creatur... |
12 January 2010
04:00 GMT |
|
|
More than ten years ago, as experts were investigating a cave system near the UK town of Yorkshire Dales, some of the team members used a nearby abandoned home to store their equipment when not in use. Unaware, they were also transporting spiders to the house. The stowaway passengers were hiding in the bags, and appa... |
5 December 2009
05:50 GMT |
|
|
Spiders are best known for their ability to create intricate webs. Each species has its own weaving pattern, which it has developed over millions of years of evolution and that is perfectly adapted to its environment. For many years, materials scientists and other experts have been fascinated by the wonderful constru... |
2 November 2009
04:39 GMT |
|
|
English researchers have recently announced that they managed to discover the oldest spiderweb ever to be included in the fossil record. University of Oxford paleontologist Martin Brasier was the lead researcher of a new investigations team that analyzed the pieces of amber found in Sussex, England. The investigators... |
31 October 2009
14:51 GMT |
|
|
Naturalists and biologists warn those suffering from arachnophobia that this autumn may be a thing of nightmares. On account of excellent breeding conditions and suitable climate, much more spiders and daddy longlegs (crane flies) will be spawned. Last autumn was very rainy, so crane-fly larvae had sufficient decayin... |
25 September 2009
17:31 GMT |
|
|
The fact that spiders' webs are stronger than just about any material their size is widely known among scientists. Kevlar and steel strands as thin as spider threads have nothing on the natural compound, in terms of resistance and endurance. In an effort that went on for more than four years, a team of workers m... |
24 September 2009
03:50 GMT |
|
|
In a new research published in yesterday's issue of the journal Biology Letters, experts have used modern 3D reconstruction techniques to model some of the largest and most dangerous spiders that lived 359 to 299 million years ago for the first time. About the size of a 20 penny piece, the spiders were revealed ... |
5 August 2009
05:53 GMT |
|
|
A species of spiders has recently amazed researchers, when it proved that it could construct a life-size imitation of itself, so as to confuse predators. To their eyes, the thing at the center of the web looks exactly like the spider they are chasing after, but they're in for a disappointment. The actual Cyclosa... |
7 July 2009
04:49 GMT |
|
|
A box currently on its way back to Earth aboard the Discovery space shuttle may still contain a live spider, of the two that have been originally placed inside the container, along with fruit flies as their food. The astronauts on the ISS have checked the status of the arachnids from time to time, but the thickness a... |
27 March 2009
03:53 GMT |
|
|
Meet the Goliath bird eating spider, also known as the birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), a member of the tarantula family. Despite its name, it finds it pretty hard to hunt down birds, but was observed to trap and eat fully-grown mice with relative ease, which is impressive for a spider of its size. According to natural... |
21 February 2009
03:27 GMT |
|
|
|
|
Find us on Google+
