Tag: spider

  • Nation & World

    Eye-popping arachnids

    Harvard researchers examined mysteries of color in the spider species Phoroncidia rubroargentea.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making eight legs look like six

    Using high-speed cameras, Harvard researchers have shown that ant-mimicking jumping spiders don’t walk on six legs in an attempt to appear more ant-like, but instead walk with all eight and take tiny, 100-millisecond pauses to lift their front legs to make them resemble ant antennae.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    From drinking straws to robots

    Inspired by arthropod insects and spiders, scientists George Whitesides and Alex Nemiroski have created a type of semi-soft robot capable of walking, using drinking straws, and inflatable tubing. The team was even able to create a robotic water strider capable of pushing itself along the water’s surface.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Untangling spider webs

    The largest-ever phylogenetic spider study shows that, contrary to popular opinion, the two groups of spiders that weave orb-shaped webs do not share a single origin.

    4 minutes