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This was more complicated than even I thought when I set out to make the video, but I'm glad I did! It was a lot of fun, and the reality of this is really cool. youtu.be/djfoUWZbLn8?...

How Spiders REALLY Eat their Prey (and it isn't by just sucking blood)YouTube video by Travis McEneryyoutu.be

Any guesses how THIS is going to figure into the video I'm working on? Practical demonstrations require weird things sometimes.

Hey Canada! Nature Conservancy Canada is running their Big Backyard Bioblitz to collect data from around the country, from Julyn27th to August 3rd. Sign up, grab your phones, and get outside! secure.natureconservancy.ca/site/SPageNa...

The Big Backyard BioblitzHelp celebrate and document the diverse species across our beautiful countrysecure.natureconservancy.ca

This one was so much fun to make, and it's such a beautiful species. youtu.be/8tEdfXxaYJI

The Dark Fishing Spider - The Spiders in Your HouseYouTube video by Travis McEneryyoutu.be

If you know, you know...

I have just learned that some Dolomedes spider females will sometimes attack, kill, and eat a courting male without mating with him, and this has nothing to do with their recent foraging success or failure. "No, it's not that I'm even hungry, I just REALLY don't like you." *chomp*

It only took me three months or so... but it's finally finished. Wanna learn about spider silk? Here ya go. Big thanks to Dr. Lisa Zeußel and Leslie Brunetta for the interviews. youtu.be/vqsMYw7vKbk

Spider Silk: Nature's Super-Material ExplainedYouTube video by Travis McEneryyoutu.be

This new book by Dr. Stephanie Dole (aka Dr. Beetlelady) is fantastic. For any kids in your life (it's aimed at ages 8-12), "Bug Power" depicts various invertebrates as having superhero-powers with great illustrations, alongside excellent photos and real-life information. More in alt-text!

My co-worker at my day job has a camo-painted travel mug. He keeps setting it down somewhere and then finds himself unable to find it again. We work in a hardware store.

Spent a few minutes brush-beating just for fun in my yard today since the sun was out, and into my bin fell this little guy. I believe this to be Hentzia mitrata, though I'm not positive on the species. Regardless, it's the first of this genus I've ever found here at home. #spidersky #Pentax

Ten weeks. Ten weeks of work is what it took to produce the first draft of the script for the spider silk video, and the first draft sucks. But it's a finished draft. Gonna have a beer now. Revisions are a tomorrow problem.

Nobody talks about how much fun it is to read science from the 1700's. This is from Francois Xavier Bon's "A Discourse on the Usefulness of the Silk of Spiders", published in Philosophical Transactions Volume 27, in 1710. "Parts of Generations" is wonderfully euphemistic.

Ok, so understandably there's a lot of hate for AI. But a question for the science-y folks out there: what's your feeling on AI-assisted research search engines like Consensus or Undermind? My initial experiments with Consensus were good. Thoughts?

Honestly, I was weirdly impressed with just how well-crafted Gemini's BS was. I know it's not built to do this, but it's interesting to see what it does when you ask it to. And kinda terrifying. youtu.be/5CWFTd2O9iM

Trying to learn how spider silk is actually made in the silk gland from reading the literature alone is like trying to learn how an internal combustion engine works by reading repair manuals that assume you already understand how an internal combustion engine works.

Hey #spidersky - need some research help. I'm trying to find any data on the yield point of flagelliform/capture spiral silk. I can find some stress-strain curves but I can't see a yield point on them and my own FAFO-ing suggests it remains elastic MUCH longer than MA silk. Anyone?

This is why I do what I do... I try to make people less afraid of spiders so that nonsense like THIS doesn't happen. www.wgal.com/article/pa-s...

PA man sets fire to multiple homes to 'kill the spiders,' police saySean McDermott, 36, is accused of arson after setting his home on fire because "he needed to kill the spiders," leading to the destruction of several neighboring homes, according to police.www.wgal.com

Just had my crappy laptop crash while trying to use it to place an order for a new laptop.

Spider people! Anyone out there doing any work on Microhexura montivaga? Or does anyone know if any surveys are happening this year? Got a friend looking into them.

Well this is neat. "For the first time in global legal history, a country has recognized the legal rights of insects, and it is the stingless bees of the Peruvian Amazon that are taking the first step toward a new model of coexistence between nature and the law." share.google/hjumfhhF2gJo...

For the first time in global legal history, a country has recognized the legal rights of insects, and it is the stingless bees of the Peruvian Amazon that are taking the first step toward a new model ...Peru just made history: stingless bees in the Amazon now have legal rights, letting communities sue to defend hives and habitat.share.google