Did You Know Taping Spiders Down is a Job?

I was flipping channels the other day when I paused in mid-flip at the sight of a young man taping an overturned spider's legs to a piece of glass on the Knowledge Network. The spider was a large yellow and black orb weaver from Florida and seemed almost resigned to its fate, which was to have its silk harvested every few days by a young scientist from UBC who was studying organic polymers in general and the incredible strength of spider silk in particular for his thesis.

Big Bertha (this particular spider) was only one of many who were taking turns donating their drag lines. Apparently, once the drag line is started you can just keep reeling and the spider will keep spinning involuntarily. The scientist, Carl Michal, and his partner Ellis have collected something like three kilometres of the stuff. They had to have a lot of sample apparently. That's a lot of spider-taping and silk-winding.

The reporter asked them if they had known when they started where their ideas would lead them. Did they ever think they'd be so good at catching honking big spiders with tweezers and coaxing them with sugar water so they would start spinning. They had not forseen it at all.

"They really are rather beautiful", said the reporter, smiling nervously, "...from over here."

She, too, got to help with the delicate job of spider-taping in the end. You just never know what each day will bring.