NASA has dedicated itself to drugging spiders to test the effects of each substance on their webs.

web This is a complex piece of engineering that people would like to replicate. Strong yet lightweight, woven strand by strand to restrain their victims as effectively as possible. Its structure is so amazing that you can even create music with it. But many people don’t know that there was a day when NASA scientists they decided drug spiders measure the effects of certain substances simply by analyzing how they work weave their webs.

In fact, the idea did not belong to him, but to a happy accident of another scientist many decades ago. NASA conducted its research in 1995. But it was in 1948, when a German zoologist called H. M. Peters accidentally discovered how spiders’ web weaving changed after taking drugs.

Typically, research for analyze the effect of drugs in animals they are carried out on mice. However, drugging spiders is much faster and easier. Especially when the consequences can be analyzed in the same tangible way as studying changes in the web. That’s why NASA scientists took on Peters’ work almost 50 years later. But back to the beginning: how did this accidental discovery happen?

Randomness in the laboratory

Peters was a zoologist who specialized in the study of spider webs. There were several of these arachnids in his laboratory, so he could study weaving process their networks. But a problem arose. Usually spiders begin to weave between 2 and 5 o’clock in the morning. This was a little inconvenient for Peters, so he decided to drug the spiders to see if he could delay the cycle a little and not let his schedule keep him up late.

He thought that amphetamines They might have been a good option, but the truth is they didn’t help much. The drugged spiders continued to weave from 2 to 5 am. However, there was something that caught the zoologist’s attention: web structure has changed radically. This made him wonder if the same thing would happen with other drugs, so he drugged the spiders again, this time just to see how their webs would change.

He tried substances such as marijuana or LSD and indeed, the fabric was completely different. In fact, there were characteristic patterns for each drug. It was something very interesting, but it didn’t seem like research that would have any really useful applications. At least not with the tools that scientists had at that time. Therefore everything is left in support.

Spider drugs for the benefit of people

Peters would never have received funding for research into drug poisoning of spiders. However, NASA had its own funding and, in addition, had the tools to conduct the research. really useful.

Thanks to the computer algorithms they had in the 90s, they were able to analyze the web produced by each drug and determine exactly what specific templates one or another substance.

To do this, they mixed the drug in question with sugar water and injected it into flies which was then fed to the spiders. After this they were allowed to weave freely.

They then took the web from an unmedicated spider, which served as a control, and compared it to the web made by spiders that were given four possible drugs: marijuana, caffeine, chloral hydrate, or benzedrine. The third is a drug that is used in humans as a sedative, and the fourth is an amphetamine. Therefore, all these are substances consumed by humans for different purposes.

Thanks to computer programThey were able to compare the control webs with the webs obtained with each type of drug and determine the exact patterns associated with them.

Thus, it turned out that one of the main toxicity measures substances may be, in comparison with the control fabric, the number of unfinished sides in the cells of the fabric.

The most toxic substance

Caffeine turned out to be the substance that drugged the spiders and made them stop. still unfinished sides. This indicates that it is quite toxic to their brain. In our case, this may be beneficial, but because we do not consume pure caffeine and do so in certain doses. This is a very useful substance; but when it becomes toxic, it affects the brain greatly. And also to disperse spiders who forget to finish the web they weave with such care.

The research was interesting and was supported by media around the world. However, the truth is that this method has its drawbacks, since drugs today are still mainly tested on mice. Arachnophobic scientists will, of course, be very happy to know this.