I just love it when I come across the occasional scientific research that is totally useless to our progress as a species.
Something nobody ever asked.. And yet it was delivered... Something that is just the result of some geeks with lots of curiosity and free tax money to do whatever they want with their silly hobbies 😄
And today's post is about one such paper published in 2021, and is actually the continuation of another paper published in 2018, when scientists "translated" the 3d structure of a spider web into... music 🎵🎶
So, according to the scientists this research not only provides valuable insight on the 3d structure of a spider web but also may help us to learn the vibrational language of spiders blah blah blah
"The spider lives in an environment of vibrating strings. They don't see very well, so they sense their world through vibrations, which have different frequencies." said engineer Markus Buehler of MIT. source
They also claim their research may have useful applications in stuff like 3d printing... Yeah I call bollocks on that 😄
As for the music they came up with .. Creepy and otherworldly are the first two words popping in my head... And beautiful in a weird kind of way... Just listen at this shit:
And some more
Now I badly want to play this under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms, bet it would make one hell of a trip
They even created a virtual 3d game where you can play your own spider music, lol
Here's a quick run down of how they actually created the music:
With these goals in mind, the researchers scanned a natural spider web with a laser to capture 2D cross-sections and then used computer algorithms to reconstruct the web's 3D network. The team assigned different frequencies of sound to strands of the web, creating "notes" that they combined in patterns based on the web's 3D structure to generate melodies. The researchers then created a harp-like instrument and played the spider web music in several live performances around the world. source
Wish I had attended one of those performances 😄
Here's a link to the actual paper, and here's a dumbed down synopsis if you want to do more reading on the subject...
Me.. I think I will get the right stuff and enjoy the web music one of these days 😅
Ok frens, this is it for today! See you soon with more crazy stuff!
More Animal Stuff
If you enjoyed this post here are some fun animal related things I have recently blogged about:
- The Glowing Millipede
- The dead leaf moth
- The "flies eating bird shit "-like moth
- The Ant-like Mantis
- The Moth That Mimics Jumping Spiders
- The Iron Snail
- The Snake with the Googly Eyes
- The Dead Leaf Butterfly
- The Snail Tank
- That's one epic goat
- Why These Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears
- The penguin that takes ten thousand naps..every single day
- Real life face hugger
- The bacterium that poops gold
- The Cocktupus