Friday, July 06, 2018

Spiders soaring

Some spiders are light enough, and can spread their silk far enough, that electrostatic fields can levitate them. Go have a read
Bristol’s researchers exposed Linyphiid spiders to lab-controlled e-fields that were quantitatively equivalent to those found in the atmosphere. They noticed that switching the e-field on and off caused the spider to move upwards (on) or downwards (off), proving that spiders can become airborne in the absence of wind when subjected to electric fields.

"bumblebees can detect e-fields arising between themselves and flowers"

I suppose if you worry about spiders rising to meet you, this might not be pleasant news.

1 comment:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Yeah, I'm not sending this to my brother.