Unfortunately, he/she is dead. Very, very dead. But! Clever scientists have been able to bring it to life (sorta) via x-ray scans, which virtually dug the crawler out of its prehistoric amber crypt. The video is eerily silent. [via Hairpin]
Despite a modern spider’s impressive offensive arsenal of venoms and trapping silks, defensive, predator-evading “dragline” silk is perhaps its most valuable asset. In this week’s excerpt, authors Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig discuss the incredible silk’s evolution and ingenious implementation.
Don’t be surprised if you see the US Army sporting fine garments made from Madagascan bark spider’s silk in the future. It’s “10 times better than Kevlar”, which itself is “five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis”.
Apologies if you suffer from arachnophobia and did not expect a picture of a tarantula to ever appear on Gizmodo. Sky seemingly thinks the only way to cure a fear of spiders is to show them some – in 3DTV.
This Cornered Glass was designed by James Laurie for nature lovers. Those who, when they see a giant spider in their homes want to catch it to free them outside the house. I will keep using my method:
