The Spider Weaves Its Web

Two years ago, a team of researchers from the University of Oxford discovered that when one of the strands of a spider's web is stretched and released like a guitar string, it emits waves with a wide range of frequencies. These waves carry information such as prey, mates, and even the structure of the web. According to Science Daily, a team of scientists from the University of Oxford and Carlos University in Madrid has now found that a spider's web functions like a finely tuned musical instrument capable of transmitting vibrations. They have also discovered that the type of information sent by these webs can be controlled by factors such as the tension in the strand and how tight or loose the strand is. This team has examined the relationship between the vibrations of the spider's web and the properties related to the strand. Spiders that weave webs often have very poor eyesight and obtain almost all information about their surroundings through the vibrations of their webs. The musical pattern produced by the strands provides them with vital information about prey, alerts them to potential predators, and informs them about the quality of potential mates. Dr. Beth Mortimer, the lead author of this research, told Reuters that the spherical web structure of the spider has a multifunctional design: it transmits vibrations and is also important for capturing prey. According to Mortimer, another function of these vibrations is that spiders become aware of the quality of their strands. According to Physics.org, spiders carefully spin their webs with silk fibers to adjust the architecture, tension, and stiffness of their networks. They do what a musician does to tune their instrument. For this research, teams from the two universities used very advanced and powerful lasers to measure extremely small vibrations. These vibrations were then reconstructed and analyzed on a computer. This analysis showed how spiders can use the silk properties of their strands to control their webs.