Thursday, December 15, 2011

Spiders' Hundreds of Fine Hairs Are Hundreds of Ears

by Dave Mosher

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/spider-leg-hair-hearing/

Spiders can not only watch your every move, they can sense the movement in the air. Their tiny specialized hairs have been confusing researchers for years. Each lil' hair on the spiders body is like one ear. Not as parts of one giant ear as some have came to believe. These hairs are so sensitive that they can feel movement in the air down to one ten-billionth of a meter (the width of an atom). Scientist Bathellier is teaching us to look at certain details within a picture to understand the whole picture. Sensitive spiders or not, I don't want to see any spiders lingering around me!