

Underwater Spider Spins Itself an Aqualung - pwg
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/spiders.html?ref=hp

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enko
Whenever I read something like this I am uncomfortably reminded of how
pathetically inadequate my tiny little human brain is for comprehending the
vast infinity of the natural world, both on and off our planet.

Just yesterday I was reading an article intended to emphasise us puny humans'
puniness by saying, basically, "One AU is 1cm. Now try to imagine ... 30km!!".
OK, mind crashed, capacity exceeded, out of range exception. I can kinda sorta
hold the first assumption in my brain. I can't hold the second.

Same with this spider and evolution. Hey, evolution, that's like when the
roofs on the town buildings turned black with soot, and the white birds were
more visible to predators and so darker birds were selected and after a few
generations all the birds were black. Hey, I can understand that! Evolution!
Yeah!

Now try to imagine ... a spider who - through some utterly incomprehensible
series of inputs, forces, mutations, generations, selections, and no doubt
thousands upon thousands of years - has managed to somehow end up
instinctually constructing a working aqualung, which it then uses to live
underwater 24/7. Crash! Stack limit exceeded, out of working space, buy a new
computer please.

If only I could ..

~~~
thret
Powers of Ten is a good way of visualising how large our universe is
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0>

~~~
jamesbressi
Brings a whole new visual (for me) to "As above, so below". Cool find, thanks.

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chopsueyar
Go to 7:08

<http://youtu.be/OWDt-6UIwPo>

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chopsueyar
I saw this newly added Netflix streaming documentary. I wonder if it is the
same type of spider?

It is French, called _Microcosmos_.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117040/>

