Gary McGath <
garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
Mad science news: Researchers at Rice University are turning dead
spiders into undead mechanical grippers.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/scientists-create-necrobotics-to-turn-dead-spiders-into-undead-zombie-robots
If you think spiders are creepy when they\342\200\231re alive, just
wait until you see what they can do when they\342\200\231re dead.
A team of engineers at Rice University in Texas successfully
reanimated dead spiders to serve as mechanical grippers.
Didn't Galvani do basically the same thing with frogs 240 years
earlier?
On reading the article, I see that the advantage of spiders is that
they don't have muscles in their legs, hence don't get rigor mortis
in their legs.
That\342\200\231s right. In proof that we have permanently strayed
from God\342\200\231s light, the team published a study of their Frankensteinian experiment in Advanced Science on July 26, in which
they were able to control a dead spider\342\200\231s legs with puffs
of air.
Mary Shelley was presumably inspired by Galvani's work with frogs.
I'm also reminded of something a little more recent. When I worked at
SAIC 40 years ago, they had lots of little drawers labeled with their
contents, such as capacitors, resistors, machine screws, wood screws,
solder, short wires, etc. I made up a label that said "dead bugs,"
put it on an empty drawer, and put dead bugs in the drawer. It took
more than a year before anyone noticed, and then they demonstrated
that they noticed by adding more dead bugs to the drawer.
I don't recall whether the dead bugs included spiders. But I never
thought any of the bugs would be useful. I wonder if the drawer is
still there, and still contains the same dead bugs.
--
Keith F. Lynch -
http://keithlynch.net/
Please see
http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
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