October 14, 2022

UNSW Sydney: World wide web: global spider silk database a boon for biomaterials

UNSW Sydney: World wide web: global spider silk database a boon for biomaterials. “What’s stronger and tougher than steel, and more elastic than rubber, weight for weight? Spider silk is, and this incredibly versatile material could transform engineering, materials science and even medicine – if we could just work out how to produce it. Now a new global study that has catalogued web silk properties of almost 1100 spiders hopes to provide a launchpad for the design of future biomaterials that emulate this wonder of nature.”

New Resources 0
August 25, 2022

New York Times: Spiders Are Caught in a Global Web of Misinformation

New York Times: Spiders Are Caught in a Global Web of Misinformation. “Recently, more than 60 researchers from around the world, including Dr. [Catherine] Scott, collected 5,348 news stories about spider bites, published online from 2010 through 2020 from 81 countries in 40 languages. They read through each story, noting whether any had factual errors or emotionally fraught language. The percentage of articles they rated sensationalistic: 43 percent. The percentage of articles that had factual errors: 47 percent.”

Research & Opinion 0
May 28, 2022

New York Times: Scientists Uncover a Shady Web of Online Spider Sales

New York Times: Scientists Uncover a Shady Web of Online Spider Sales. “In a new paper, published in Communications Biology on Thursday, Dr. [Alice] Hughes and her colleagues shine a light on the largely unregulated trade of creatures that prefer to lurk in the dark. Their analysis of online sales listings turned up more than 1,200 species of spiders, scorpions and other arachnids; just 2 percent of them are subject to international trade regulations, the researchers report.

Security & Legal Issues 0
October 21, 2020

Bangor Daily News: New list gives comprehensive look at Maine’s many spiders

Bangor Daily News: New list gives comprehensive look at Maine’s many spiders. “Maine has 677 different species of spiders, according to the newly-published Checklist of Maine Spiders. Co-written by Daniel T. Jennings and Charlene P. Donahue, the list is the ‘first reasonably comprehensive checklist of spider families, genera and species’ collected in Maine, according to the checklist’s introduction.”

New Resources 0
August 5, 2020

CNET: Australia has invented Shazam for spiders

CNET: Australia has invented Shazam for spiders. “Critterpedia is a collaboration between creators Nic and Murray Scare and Australia’s National Science Agency, CSIRO. It’s a machine learning engine designed to automatically identify different species of spiders and snakes. An AI-powered algorithm like Critterpedia requires hundreds of thousands of images to become accurate in its assessments, so CSIRO and Data 61 are hoping to get as many people as possible to download Critterpedia and upload pictures of spiders and snakes they might see in the wild.”

Research & Opinion 0

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