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Female bark spiders spin silk that can be more than twice as strong as the fibers spun by their male counterparts, Kaia Glickman reports in Science 🕷️
https://www.science.org/content/article/strongest-spiderweb-earth-spun-only-females
The females are also much larger than the males and craft webs to snag larger prey, such as dragonflies.
Learn more about the sticky subject of spider web diversity from our 2018 story 👇
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2018/sticky-science-evolution-spiderwebs
A push to move away from petroleum products — plus the perception that natural is gentler — has scientists lathering up new ingredients, from wood and fungus extracts to engineered proteins.
✍️ Carolyn Wilke
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2025/science-of-green-hair-care
đź‘€ On our radar: Planned megaconstellations would contaminate the view of the cosmos of four orbiting telescopes.
✍️ Jenna Ahart, via Nature
It’s not easy to find the source of a swirling scent plume. Scientists are using experiments and simulations to uncover the varied strategies that animals employ.
✍️ Dana Mackenzie
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2023/how-animals-follow-their-nose
Now, a growing number of scientists are calling for studies of the exposome — the sum of chemicals and pollutants the body is exposed to in a lifetime — as a means to revolutionize our understanding and treatment of chronic diseases.
Learn about some of the early efforts to make this “omics” field a reality from our 2019 story.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2019/exposome-research
Just a fraction of the cases of Parkinson’s disease can be explained by genetics. The same holds true for many other chronic diseases. Yet for years, genetic causes of ailments have garnered the bulk of research dollars and attention, David Ferry writes at Wired.
https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-thought-parkinsons-was-in-our-genes-it-might-be-in-the-water/
Scientists are discovering that clumping clouds supercharge storms in surprising ways — driving heavy, deadly rainfall and flooding
✍️ Clare Watson
👀 On our radar: In Portugal’s Douro valley, centuries-old winemaking traditions meet modern chemistry to create a sweet and intense fortified wine.
✍️ Bárbara Pinho, via Chemistry World
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-chemistry-of-port/4022483.article
Time flies on Mars — and now scientists have calculated precisely how fast. Per day, time passes an average of 477 millionths of a second faster on the Red Planet than it does here on Earth, Keith Cooper reports at @Spacecom
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/time-travels-faster-on-mars-than-on-earth-and-heres-why
