Tarantula coordination disintegrates in heat
Scuttling across the floor, a spider's movements have more in common with robots than you may at first realise. Instead of contracting muscles to extend a limb, spiders inflate their joints with haemolymph to straighten them – in much the same way that hydraulic fluid propels robot limbs. And temperature fluctuations may affect the movements of spiders and robots alike: fluid viscosity can increase dramatically as temperature falls, prompting undergraduate Nick Booster from Pitzer College, USA, to ask whether spider movements are affected by temperature change. 'I've always wanted to study spiders because they use hydraulics', says Anna Ahn from Harvey Mudd College, USA, so when Booster approached Ahn and Steve Adolph with his idea to study the effects of temperature on the arachnid's movements, they jumped at the chance. 'This is a fascinating question', Ahn chuckles, adding, 'We wanted to understand how temperature affects the haemolymph and whether impaired...