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Poison web

05.08.2020

A beautiful silky web, on which drops of rain or dew are picturesquely frozen, can actually be dangerous. Scientists have found that silk cobwebs contain protein formations with neurotoxins that can instantly kill the victim. Weaver spiders succeeded in this skill, whom nature endowed with the talent to weave beautiful large cobwebs.

It turns out that its purpose is not only to catch prey, but also to paralyze it. Biochemist Mario Palma believes that many wheel-shaped webs may contain poison.

Together with colleagues from the University of Sao Paulo in Rio Claro, Brazil, he conducted a series of studies and experiments. At the same time, scientists doubted that Palma was right, since previous studies of the characteristics of the web proved its stickiness, and this is more than enough to trap the victim.

The hypothesis that the web can be poisonous, Mario Palma has been considering for about 25 years. Living near a rice plantation, he has repeatedly observed how weaving spiders weave a wheel-shaped web, luring fresh prey.

As soon as the fly hit the web, the insect was not only trapped, it was almost instantly immobilized. Further studies of neurotoxins confirmed the scientist's assumptions. Neurotoxins can turn the web into a poisonous trap.

The webs of other spiders probably have similar neurotoxins. After analyzing the proteins found on the silk of the web in the fatty vesicles, the researchers identified neurotoxic compounds in them.

Protein compounds were introduced into the body of bees and within a minute the insects were paralyzed. But for humans, it does not pose a particular danger.

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After analyzing air samples from a Buddhist temple in Taiwan, researchers at a local university concluded that the constant burning of incense sticks made the air at the shrine more dangerous to health than the air at a busy downtown intersection.

The content of benzopyrene - a substance that causes lung cancer - in the air of the temple was 45 times higher than in a smoky room, and 118 times higher than in a room without smokers. The amount of smoke in a temple depends on the number of believers in it. On major holidays, hundreds of incense sticks burn at once in the temple.

Sometimes the smoke makes it impossible to see the opposite wall. The number of micron-sized particles suspended in the air is three times greater than at a busy intersection.

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