After failed attempts, two spiders succeeded in an experiment carried out on the space shuttle Endeavor, and carried out on the space station, to weave webs almost as they weave under the force of gravity on the ground * The space shuttle will leave the station tomorrow and return to Earth on Saturday
The educational experiment currently underway on the International Space Station produced surprising results. See that the luck of two understands the spiders, who had previously tangled with the weavers in the conditions of zero gravity In space turned upside down. They abandoned the messy XNUMXD grid they had built and started building a XNUMXD web like the one they are building on Earth. The experiment began with some embarrassment when it turned out that one of the spiders was absent, but it seems that the remaining pair included the craft of spinning the webs.
The experiment, which was launched and supervised by hundreds of school students from the USA, is one of the payloads of the space shuttle Endeavor on the STS-126 mission to the International Space Station, the home upgrade mission. Without any help from spacewalking astronauts, the tiny pair of astronauts decided to do some renovations of their own. They destroyed the network they had built, and built a new one, the flight controllers reported to the space station crew members. "We felt we were the main entertainers, but I guess the spider thing overshadowed us," said station commander Mike Fink.
Scientists accompanying the experiment speculate that it took the spiders several days to get used to the low gravity conditions in orbit, but they turned the enclosure they built for themselves into something that looks more familiar in nature. Just last week, the camera attached to the spider experiment revealed that the eight-legged guests had built themselves a home, but it was quite chaotic. Without gravity it seemed that the spiders could not build a 'normal' house.
However, it seems that their adaptation period is over. Last Thursday they noticed in the control center that the spiders had built a web and asked the team members to take another look. "We saw that the spiders built a symmetrical web," Pinka radioed to the control center the next day. "It looks great". said.
"The transformation that the spiders went through will interest not only the students but also research biologists. Although there has been interest in exploring how different life forms adapt themselves to life in space, I don't think anyone expected to see such a dramatic change in their fortunes." said Finca.
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In the meantime, the activities of Anwar's team members continue at the station, today they continued to clear the equipment in the Leonardo storage unit. The equipment will be used by the crew members of the space station, and it includes food, air, water and spare parts for various systems in the station. Tonight, Leonardo will be transferred from his place adjacent to the space station back to the cargo deck of the shuttle Endeavour.
The shuttle will leave the station on Friday and land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday evening Israel time.
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The cargo also included fruit flies to feed the mosquitoes.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the result, although we are dealing with spiders that are less complex creatures than humans (at least theoretically), but the fact that they are able to recognize the first attempt as a failure, disassemble it and start over is miraculous to me.
It is not certain that every living creature would have adapted so well (see the example of the bees - if I remember correctly they went to hell because the magnetic polarization of the spaceship was too weak, or something like that) but
Despite my surprise, this was to be expected from the roaches for several reasons:
1. I couldn't find anywhere if you provide the spiders with direct nutrition, if not then it is more likely that they will eat their webs (which, as you know, are a rich source of protein). I don't know if the second attempt survived their (possible) starvation.
2. Spiders are known for using their webs to fly, meaning they are used (as a species) to the forces applied to them changing and their acceleration changing and to adjust their webs for their desired result.
Although it is a simple experiment, but I think the result is cool, I wonder if next time they will build the network even better and how they decided that this is the result they want?
brother,
Alchemy contributed greatly to the chemical and physical sciences that followed it. The alchemists created and developed different tools from glass, pottery and metals and discovered different techniques to work with them. Although the basic theory behind alchemy was wrong, the useful information gained from the alchemists' experience was enough to give a boost to the other sciences.
The phrase 'end of action with first thought' is a wise sentence in the right place. Unfortunately, it does not necessarily apply to basic science. A good example of this is what happened in England around the middle of the century. I don't remember the exact details of the case and I can't find it online at the moment, but the general idea is that around the middle of the century a committee was established in England that examined the current fields of physics, and decided which fields of physics should be given more money in the universities. They chose to support a field that was at the forefront of science at the time (vacuum tubes, as I imagine). All the other physicists - for example of the solid state - moved to other countries or remained in England but could not engage in fruitful and efficient research.
Twenty years later, the world is based on solid-state physics. Where is England in this revolution? From a scientific point of view, it is far, far behind in the level and scope of publications, and as a result also in patents and companies.
Such transformations apply to all sciences. When Rutherford discovered the electron he was met with scorn for discovering a particle too small for us to ever see. A century later, the electron is the basis of all existing technology.
What more? Gregory Mendel. Who would have invested a worn penny on his research at the time? Thirty years after his death, the research became the cornerstone of modern genetics.
In short, it is very difficult to know where research in basic science will take us, except a few decades later. I personally know of at least one interesting study in tissue engineering that was conducted on the space station, and I am convinced that there are many more studies that could get interesting results only in zero gravity. We will find out the consequences of the results of these studies only in a good few years - but then we will be glad that we conducted them.
I no longer work for a living - just for fun, and certainly not like a donkey.
I enjoy every moment and work to prevent evil knowing that even if I fail to prevent it I have somewhere to go.
I sleep whenever I feel like it - whether it's during the day or at night and worries never leave my mind.
You mean you'd rather keep working like a donkey and not sleep at night worrying? Well, it's actually just like me. Now explain what's good about it?
little brother:
I didn't understand why you would do that in my place, and to use Hugin's language, it is clear that you don't understand my place, because if you were in my place, you would be me and I don't do it.
Good morning my colleagues,
My father - we met for the first time at the Technion, and it was more than a day or two ago. But thanks for the compliment. I get to work with people half of whom are half my age and happily I usually surpass them in openness/curiosity/creativity and ability to learn - so maybe I am entitled to your compliment after all.
Roy - the human race spent hundreds of years in alchemy (at the center of which was the attempt to turn lead into gold), it was a waste of time!. I googled 77 times to find significant things that left the station - I didn't find it!. I Googled Google another 777 to find a research program worthy of the station - I didn't find it!. Can you point to any causes that justify the incredible costs? Do you think the phrase 'end of action with first thought' is only a recommendation?
Hello Michael - I was thinking about you yesterday... maybe in your place I would break a paradigm. Maybe take a ship and sail west... 🙂
All is well:
It is true that every time they tell about another experiment at the space station (another one out of thousands) someone comes and asks: "What? Did they build the station just for this experiment?".
Regarding the current experiment - I think it was important and the fact that they sent bees into space (or even humans) says nothing and a half about how spiders build webs.
As mentioned, I think the contribution of the experiment is in the insights it gives about the brains of the spiders, more than the ones it gives about the webs themselves.
How do you have the strength for your nonsense, you talk as if they launched the spacecraft into space and invested billions of dollars just to carry out this experiment..
Enough being petty.
brother,
There is no question that it is a population, but it is present in all the studies that reach the media today. Side by side with this research, many other studies are being conducted on the space station, including in tissue engineering, metallurgy, fluid and gas flow and more. Since it is impossible to create a real microgravity environment in which we can test certain ideas on Earth, the space station allows testing of those ideas and theories.
Regarding the current study:
His results in themselves are marginal, but you have to remember that this is basic science. In almost every basic science study the results are negligible in themselves. The beauty is that in five years an entomologist - an insect researcher - will come and interpret this finding into a new theory about the way spiders weave webs. Then the physicists, chemists and mechanical engineers will come who want to test the spider's webs, and will take advantage of the new theory to make the spiders in the laboratory produce more webs - which will allow for some more interesting tests, and from there will come a new discovery about the nature of the material.
or not. It is quite possible that nothing came of it. But the thing is that almost every research that affects our lives today is based on hundreds of smaller studies that provided it with the laboratory, thought and experimental infrastructure. And this is the importance of basic science, in my opinion. From many such marginal studies, diamonds emerge. It's a long process, but every bit of extra knowledge helps.
to the little brother The experiment in question was not proposed by NASA scientists, but by students in primary and secondary schools in the US who were asked to propose an experiment and supervise it. This has nothing to do with the cost of the space station. The experiment was carried out as part of the shuttle mission, which happened to arrive at the space station to carry out renovations .
You may be young but you don't know how many people went to study engineering and science thanks to the Apollo operation and the other projects when the space program was at its peak. See today - everyone is going to study business.
Therefore, the very fact that students are encouraged to study science - biology in this case - is a blessing.
That is why education is very important. In addition, regardless, the experiment yielded interesting results and, as Michael said - really unexpected.
You chose the right word - contempt. But to be precise then bullshit is even better.
To remind you that insects have been launched into space for a long time, as I think bees were launched 30-40 years ago. Do you need the space station (100 billion euros) for this experiment? Couldn't it be done with the space shuttle or with any launch, how much cheaper?
Do you really disagree that this is an embarrassing population? It's not scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with content for this station?
Not long ago there was a statement by a retired astronaut who said that a mission to Mars should be a 'one way ticket'. Maybe it's time to 'up the ante' and take bigger risks.
I am really moved by your disdain for smart research that produced non-trivial results.
One of the interesting conclusions from this study is that the spiders do not simply perform some automatic collection of actions that eventually produce the typical network, but rather have in their minds a mental image of the desired result and that is not obtained in the usual way, they are able to "develop" another way that will produce the same result under the new conditions !
to my peace,
Of course it is!
This is another way to get rid of spiders - a bit expensive but sure.
Does this have practical consequences?
Yanon:
It's not trivial at all and I don't know how it's so obvious to you.
Many insects had a very long time to adapt to the fact that man created light sources other than the sun and the moon, but this did not prevent them (to this day!) from entering a vortex around a fire or a lamp and thus spending their days.
Pay attention in the next experiment they will bring a beaver, and show us how he builds a dam in space.
Haha the only thing the experiment shows us is that astronauts are sometimes bored too =(
And it is clear that the spider will adapt after some time to the new environment, this is the nature of every living creature.
Fascinating.
Probably everyone who is interested in learning real architecture: he will be advised, that in the first week of study he should do nothing but follow the behavior of spiders in nature: this is how you will acquire perfect spatial intelligence/maximum adaptability to drastic changes in relational situations, the forces of attraction-gravity/characteristics of a basic structure in nature/capacity for durability and flexibility .
And who knows, we will still have to pay a "salary" to the animals of nature for correct teaching..