The conclusions were obvious. The web becomes more disorganized and incomplete as the toxin becomes more potent. Surprisingly, caffeine generated some of the most disorganized patterns, with spiders unable to complete the edges of their webs. The designs were different but equally disorganized as a result of cannabis and amphetamines. In fact, NASA scientists used statistical approaches to quantify the extent of the disruption and compare the geometry of the webs to crystal lattices. The more finished sides in the web's cells, the greater the toxicity.

The reason why it matters

Published in Life Sciences in 1995, the study found that chemical-induced neurological disturbance might be seen in spider webs. Without using higher animals, this method offered a novel approach to toxicity testing, giving insights into how different compounds influence instinctive animal behavior.

It serves as a reminder that substances that humans take for granted, such as caffeine, can have significant effects on other species. The test provided NASA with an innovative method for visualizing toxicity and neurological effects.

NASA, drugs, and spiders may seem like an odd combination, but it resulted in one of the most remarkable experiments in the annals of experimental biology. Although NASA is most famous for its space exploration efforts, the organization formerly focused on spiders in order to investigate how chemicals influence natural animal behavior.

The Internet as a portal to the mind

Spiders are born with the ability to create webs; they don't have to learn it. The arrangement of each thread, spiral, and anchor point in a specific order leads to a structure that is both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Scientists understood that any interference with this process might leave a noticeable trace of how chemicals affect the nervous system.

In the late 1940s, Swiss pharmacologist Peter N. Witt was the first to study this concept. Witt subjected spiders to various chemicals, such as amphetamines, mescaline, caffeine, LSD, and carbon monoxide, and then watched how their web construction altered. Spiders left their webs entirely in response to some drugs, like high doses of LSD. Others, such mescaline, caused webs that were a little bit bigger but still identifiable. Low dosages of LSD had the most dramatic effects, creating elaborate, psychedelic webs that were visually arresting but useless for catching prey.

The unconventional drug test conducted by NASA

Decades later, researchers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in NASA revisited and enhanced Witt's work. They aimed to discover alternative methods for determining chemical toxicity that did not involve the use of animals. The dependable web-making habits of spiders provided a distinctive fix. The NASA team took images and digitized the webs that resulted from exposing spiders to cannabis, caffeine, the sedative chloral hydrate, and benzedrine (an amphetamine) for analysis.

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