“In an underwater cave on the border between Greece and Albania, scientists have discovered a spider web that spans 1,076.4 square feet along a wall…The web is home to an estimated 110,000 spiders of two different species,” reports UExpress. Professor Istvan Urak of Sapientia University visited the cave to examine the web. “It is a unique case of two species cohabiting within the same web structure in this huge number,” he noted. 512 other species of spiders also live in the cave.
In other news, the town of Neuville-sur-Saone, France, delivered good news to a resident last week. “He can keep the $800,000 worth of gold bars and coins he unearthed while digging for a swimming pool in his backyard. The gold was stashed in plastic bags; the man alerted authorities in May, when he found the treasure.” Police determined “that the gold had not been stolen, and the home’s previous owner had died, so it belongs to the current resident,” reports UExpress.
In other news, scientists have engineered bionic silkworms with spider genes. They spin fibers six times stronger than Kevlar. Spiders produce very “tough and strong silk,” but producing large amounts of it using spiders was “out of reach” because of the “cannibalistic nature of spiders,” which “makes it impossible to house spiders together.” So the spider genes had to be added to silkworms to generate large amounts of this strong fiber.
Researchers have genetically engineered a species of fly to eat more waste. A genetically-modified chicken lays eggs that people allergic to eggs can eat. Scientists have genetically engineered a cow that produces human insulin in its milk.
