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A new study published by scientists at the University of Bristol proves that spiders can detect the Earth's electric field and use it to fly in the air. The process, known as the "balloon", allows arachnids to use silk strands to float up to three miles above the surface of the Earth and 1,000 miles offshore.
Charles Darwin observed the flight of spiders aboard the HMS Beagle in 1832. While he was at sea, he noticed that the ship was covered with canvases and found tiny spiders everywhere. "I caught some of the Aeronaut spiders that must have traveled at least 60 miles," he wrote in his diary.
Darwin suspects that "aerial excursions" could be propelled by electric force, but the theory has never been proven. Most scientists badumed that the spiders were simply sailing on the wind, but this did not explain how the arachnids traveled so far in the light winds.
The new study, published Thursday in Current Biology proves the use of electricity. in the spiders' journey. Erica Morley, a sensory biophysicist at Bristol University, led the study that finally ended the secular debate
With spiders caught in a closed box, Morley and his team observed how spiders reacted to certain electric fields. The spiders were placed on a cardboard strip in the center of the box. When the team generated electric fields similar to those that spiders would know outside, they noticed that tiny hairs on the legs of spiders, called trichobothria, were standing on their heads. It's a sensation similar to the one you produce when you rub a balloon and you hold it in your own hair – electricity pulls it up. This proved that spiders can detect electric fields.
Electric fields also prompted spiders to begin "tiptoeing" or standing at the ends of their legs with their abdomens in the air. According to Morley, this behavior is only seen before inflating. Some spiders actually managed to take off, but they fell as soon as the electric field was cut.
When spiders rise on tiptoe, raise their abdomen and release silk, the strands take a negative charge. This repels the negative charge of the surface on which the spider is resting, providing enough lift for the balloon.
Air currents can still play a role in flying spiders, but Morley and his team have proven that arachnids can fly only through the light. electric fields. The phenomenon is possible because the upper atmosphere of the Earth has a positive charge, while the ground has a negative charge. In stormy weather, this electric field can reach thousands of volts per meter above the ground.
In 2013, Peter Gorham, a physicist at the University of Hawaii, published a study providing a theoretical background for the possibility of hot air ballooning. Morley's study is the first to prove the theory in the laboratory.
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