WEBVTT - I Was Eaten by a Giant Spider 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stop 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.319 works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.040 My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.079 and Robert. You have seen the horror movies of the 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.439 nineteen fifties, I know you've delve deep into I've seen 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.000 a lot of them, and the ones I haven't seen, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.200 I've I've watched the trailers. I mean, sometimes that's the 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.400 best way to enjoy a film. They put all the 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.159 best stuff in the trailers. But what was big then? 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.080 It was atomic age panic, right, Yeah, giant animals exactly right. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:41.640 So there's nuclear testing, there's atomic radiation, and suddenly animals 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.080 become very big. And one of the animals they would 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.199 make very big, you know quite well, was the spider. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.320 That's right. I mean with all of them, all you 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.479 need is a little camera magic, and you can make 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.560 anything look big. You didn't have to worry about having 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.080 some sort of fancy stop motion creature. You didn't have 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.360 to worry certainly with c g I or costumes. You're 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.000 just an actual spider. Yeah, film a tarantula and then 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.880 put it in the background, you know, superimposed with the 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.880 different sizes. Yeah, But so there's a sequence and pretty 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.160 much all these movies. I probably haven't seen them all, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.080 but I've seen some of them where the spider lives 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.720 in a cave or something like that, and the people 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.920 are wandering near the cave and then somebody falls into 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.520 its web and the web is a hammock. It's just 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.240 a hann't it. It's a piece of like it's white 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.720 rope netting. Uh. And people get stuck to the hammock 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.280 and then the spiders coming. Sometimes they escape, sometimes it 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.840 eats them. It's generally a bella legostie pretends to wrestle 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.320 a rubber octopus level of awkward because you're like struggling 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.760 the hammock. Just just get up and get out of it. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.680 You're clearly not stuck, right. But there's a part we 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.440 never see right now. Often the person gets away. If 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.600 the person gets eaten by the giant spider, we just 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.760 sort of see like a ah, and then the spiders approaching. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:05.120 The music swells in. That's it. What happens after that cutaway? Well, 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.840 sometimes we find their bones later, sometimes their their their 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.080 cocoon body shows up later. But I can't think of 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:16.400 a film off hand that had a prolonged spider cut 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.480 death by spider death scene. I guess they really didn't 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.320 go for the intense, gross outgore scenes like that in 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.360 the nineteen fifties. But even if they did, what would 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.079 they be showing what actually happens when a spider eats 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.320 something at that scale? And that's going to be the 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:37.280 topic of today's conversation. So we're gonna imagine a nineteen 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:41.200 fifties Roger Corman atomic radiation movie, but we're gonna take 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.519 it to the next level and go beyond that cut away. 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.600 The movie is I was eaten by a giant spider. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.280 But I guess first I should ask, for real, what's 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.120 your favorite giant spider movie? Oh? I mean, anytime a 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.880 giant spider turns up mir in for a good time. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.840 I tend to lean more towards the stop motion ones. 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.720 Let's see, The Giant Spider Invasion is a lot of fun. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.360 Never seen that this one? Who was an MST? Really yeah, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.400 it was. It's really good. They're really good. It was 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.079 a really great MST episode. They they used actual spiders, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.919 as I recall, and there's a there's this like really 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.040 gross kind of hillbilly character in it, and giant spiders 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.200 and somebody drives a car into a giant spider. How 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.480 big are the giant spiders? They are like construction equipment 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.880 big like, so they're ridiculous in terms of size. Um. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.360 You know, another one I remember from Mystery Science Theater 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.880 three thousand is the I think Horrors of Spider Island. 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.400 That's a good one. That one. That one's one that 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.720 was like it was black and white. It's just a 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.240 real sleezy feel to it because it's like a bunch 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:58.600 of babes and like one very greased up muscleman that 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.640 are trapped in the island. He turned. It's it's like 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:02.400 a it's like a dude who has a bunch of 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.520 ladies who work on some nightclub act and they crash 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.960 on a spider island. I haven't seen that one, fairly contrived. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.240 Come on, I haven't seen that one in years, but 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.280 I do remember, like it's a sweaty looking movie, and 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.960 I remember watching it on VHS and a very sweaty 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.600 college dorm. So it's just like I'm just sitting there 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.080 sweating at night, get my night sweats on, and here's 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.679 this just sweaty, weird, oppressive movie. Now, of course, another 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:29.760 big point that I'm sure a lot of you listening 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.320 right now are screaming. Is she labbed from Lord of 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.520 the Rings. I remember that from the movies. But can 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.559 I can I admit a little secret good? I've never 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.159 actually read the Lord of the Rings books in full. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.479 I probably like the only nerd around here who would 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.520 admit that and expect to get out alive. Well, they're good? 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.159 Is that a call? I? I can't read them again until, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:53.320 you know, maybe I'll read them with my son or something. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.880 But I kept telling myself, I'll read them again when 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.599 I get the film adaptation is kind of out of 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.240 my head because I don't want to read them again 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.440 and have those visuals and informant, though the visuals were 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.880 often very good. In fact, I would say that the 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.160 giant spider she loved in the first Lord of the 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.440 Ring film, I think the second, the third one. The 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.279 third one I can't remember because I can't remember where 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.520 that where she shows up in the she shows us 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.640 versus the movies in the third movie when the Hobbits 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.080 are here, we can okay, So the Hobbits are in 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.839 more door, the evil land where you know they're towards 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.680 the end of their journey, but a big spider attacks. Okay, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.440 I guess it was the third movie. It's the movie 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.000 is kind of blurred together for me, but but I 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.960 thought that that scene was fabulous. Like the spider the 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:41.520 computer animated is just perfect. Yeah, it's like it's basically 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.840 a huge tarantula. We also, though in Lord of the Rings, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.160 never see exactly what would happen if the spider began 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.320 to feed. We see it bite somebody and cocoon them, 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.159 but it never starts to eat anybody. I have a 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:58.279 vague memory that the cinematic version of Sheilab also had 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.920 confusing anatomy, but there were there were aspects about it, 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.040 and certainly it's perfectly fine for a monster spider from 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.479 a fantasy uh product to have monstrous features that don't 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.320 line up with with actual real world spider biology. Like 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.960 I think she had a stinger or something. Maybe there 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.840 was some positor acually, I'm not sure what. Yeah, stinger 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.080 where like the silk spin orrets should have been. Yeah, 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.719 I remember she kind of like uh pegged Sam with 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.040 it at and that was kind of strange. But yeah, okay, 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.440 here's another one that I remember but not very well. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.680 Doesn't doesn't Tim Curry turn into a spider at the 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.240 end of the movie? It? Yes, the uh, the the 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:42.960 nine TV miniseries. Uh, if you're like me, you probably 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:47.359 have fun and disturbing memories of this. Uh, this is 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.880 a book I read, probably too early, and then that 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.920 film came out, And of course Tim Curry is perfect 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.120 as Pennywise, the dancey clown and traumatized the whole generation. Yeah, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.039 as we've said on this show before, any movie that 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.080 Tim Curry's in, he's the best part. Try to think 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.359 of a counter example. You can't. Yeah, he was great 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.760 and and particularly he was great in the first half 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.440 of that mini series, which was mostly the kid's stuff, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.400 and that was the most effective part of that mini series. 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.280 I think the second part not as strong, and it 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:23.040 did include a big showdown with with it in a 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.880 giant alien spider form. Actually just looked it up on 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.000 YouTube and watched it before we came in here, and uh, 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.360 it's it's an impressive looking spider. It looks like a 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.400 large animatronic kind of spider. So I don't know if 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.000 it's really terrifying, but it is kind of a neat design. Okay, 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.920 definitely come out of a drain or something. They go 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.320 into a cave and then it has like it it shines, 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.000 it's dead lights through its u Torso I should I 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.080 should do some sort of like a monster the wheat 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.320 breakdown of it on the blog because it's an interesting 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:57.040 looking credit, but probably not another non scientifically perfect spider. Yeah, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.520 even less so. And you know it's a it's a creature. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.960 It's like out from the Toto's Darkness or whatever, so 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.720 you know it's it can get away with being completely alien. 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.120 But there are plenty of other cinematic giant spiders that 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.920 are look more like spiders, behave more like spiders. I 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.160 instantly think of Krul. Of course, there's a fabulous sequence 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.480 in there with a spider like she's like a spider queen, 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.160 and they're giant spiders all along the web and there's 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.400 a lot of the adventuring party has to make their 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.120 way across it gets stuck on a hammock? Is it 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.760 basically a hammock? And Krall I think think that I 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.120 want to remember it being a little more believable than 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.240 that because so many of the effects and Kral are 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.640 pretty top notch, but but I don't specifically remember. I 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.280 think it was a stop motion spider though I see 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:46.160 you have a note here Robert about an ewalk adventure. Yes, so, um, 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.360 we have a lot of Star Wars fans in the office. Um, 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.560 or at least we have Holly, and Holly is enough 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.440 of a Star Wars fan to like represent multiple people. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:09:00.400 I think she's like she is. She's a true mendous 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.240 Star Wars fan, and I know that she has a 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:03.960 warm spound her heart for these as well. Some people 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.560 don't care for him. But there were a couple of 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:08.280 live action Ewok made for TV films that came out. 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.680 The first one was Urs Caravan of Courage and Ewok Adventure, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:17.040 and that one features a giant some giant spiders on 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.680 a web. It's been a long time since I've seen 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.200 that one, and I remember it being good but also 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.079 kind of traumatic because there's a lot of like people 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.600 losing their family members in it. Um. But then there's 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.320 also a follow up. I think it's the Battle for Indoor, 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:33.839 and that one's that I have a lot of fun 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:35.360 memories of that one. Would watch that one over and 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.840 over again VHS because it has essentially orcs in it. 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.560 It has an evil, uh seductive like raven queen who 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.120 can turn herself into a raven with a magic ring. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.319 There's a there's a crash spaceship and it's pilot is 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.760 Wilford Brimley, who so it's a it's a true that 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.200 that's tremendous film too, but only the first one has 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.760 a giant spider and finally a more recent giant spider. 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.920 Not two giants, but giant enough to be disturbing. If 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.480 anyone out there is currently watching the latest season of 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:12.319 Black Mirror on Netflix, the second episode, I believe is 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.560 is wonderful horror Halloween viewing, and does include a scene 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.640 with a monstrous spider, But I say, I'm gonna have 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.200 to check that out this weekend. Anyway, I wanted to 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.560 move on to the next thing, which is that today 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.200 we are going to be talking about people getting eaten 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.200 by giant spiders. But uh, I want to frame this 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.880 with a reminder that it is simply wrong in my 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.840 point of view to contribute to global spider panic, and 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.880 I will not allow us to contribute to global spider panic, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.520 even if only by accident. Spiders are not your enemy. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.240 If you're a human and the spider is a normal 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.320 sized spider, that's not you know, at least ten times 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.959 bigger than the biggest spider could ever get. Spiders are 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.520 are not something to worry about. They generally pose no 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:02.040 threat to humans, with the small exceptions of a few 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.320 species that even those are not something you should really 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.800 worry about. There's no good reason you need to go 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.240 around squashing spiders, and in fact, you would probably find 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.480 a world without spiders utterly intolerable. They make it okay 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.520 for us to live on this planet. Now, now, Joe, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.679 I know some people are thinking right now and maybe 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.720 even writing the email. They're gonna say, Hey, what about 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.160 the black woodow spiders and the brown reclusives that live 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.600 in my shed? Should I not kill those on site? 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.200 Should I allow those? Why do you need to kill them? 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:32.880 I don't know. I mean a lot of people would 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.360 argue that is saying, I this is my shed, this 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.120 is where I go to get my tools. I don't 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.880 want to grab a hoe and then have a black 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.280 woo spider stingy. Well, I don't know're not sting me 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.640 rather but bite me? Sting still with his little stick 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.720 to my brain. I mean, I guess I can't argue 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.240 with what you do in your shed, but but I 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.400 I don't. We do not want to push an anti 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.960 spider message here. Spy piers, spiders perform essential services for 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.880 human beings and really all the other creatures on Earth. 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.520 I would say one of the primary things is insectivorous services. 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:15.120 So spiders are primary predators that prey on insects. Imagine 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.560 a world in which the primary control on insect populations 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.520 is gone. You know, we've just squashed them all because 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:24.319 we didn't like the way they looked, or we were 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.040 afraid of them, or something like that. I found one 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.640 article that interviewed the arachnologist Norman I. Platinik, who works 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.200 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.600 which is probably the coolest place I went this year. 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.280 Um and Platinum speculates that if spiders were to disappear 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.920 from the Earth, it's likely that human beings would face famine. 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.840 He says, without spiders, all of our crops would be 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:51.040 consumed by these pests, the pests that are primarily controlled 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.200 by spider predation. So it's hard to know for sure 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.520 what would happen in these weird hypothetical scenarios with ecology, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.520 but I think that's a pretty safe bet to uh. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.199 And you know, when it comes back to come back 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.280 to black widows for instance, sure you don't want to 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.400 be they become bitten by one, but that black widow 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.959 is there because their insects to eat, so she's doing 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:16.360 a service. And if you're concerned about their being an 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.400 imbalance here with too many black widows around, then I 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.240 think one possible solution would be just don't knock down 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:26.320 those dirt daver wasp nests because they in turn prey 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.640 on the spiders are that bring them back to their 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.920 nests anyway for their their brood to emerge from and consume. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.120 So allow the web of life to work itself exactly exactly, 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.679 and the wasp nous of life to work it I 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.160 must add too, as in accordance with the research that 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.559 I that I was working on for this episode, even 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.960 most black widow spider bites today do not result in death. Like, 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.079 you don't want to be bitten by a black widow, 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.040 but if you get if you get a black widow bite, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.040 seek medical attention, you will probably be all right. I 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.440 think I read that since nineteen seventy it's been like 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.320 one scent or less of people bitten by black widows 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.040 end up dying. And I think I've also read that 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.880 every night the average person consumes twenty seven black widow 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.240 spiders just in the course of sleeping. The crawl right 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.200 in there. That is a true fact. That's where we 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.400 get essential vitamins and minerals. All right, So, what are 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.840 some other reasons that we should keep the old arachnets around? Well, 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.640 beyond the fact that animals deserve to live for their 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.880 own sake, they are useful to us for plenty of 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:30.080 other reasons. Spiders have a lot of biommetic technological uses 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.760 that people are learning more and more about all the time. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.960 One of the things would be their silk, for example. Yeah, indeed, 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.080 we we have to have an older episode that they 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.040 just rolls through all the various ways and reasons that 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.840 we're trying to steal the secret of the silk. And really, 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.280 I mean it goes back to ancient mythology to um, 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:55.280 was it Arachney who lost the bet? A weaving bet 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.560 with the gods or looming? I guess we're using a loom, 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.600 but at any rate, Uh, Yeah, the silk of the 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:06.800 spider is an amazing material, a true meta material. Um. 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.040 They have special glands that secrete silk proteins dissolved in 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.760 a water based solution, and the spider pushes the liquid 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.480 solution through long ducts. These ducts leaved him lead to 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:22.280 microscopic spigots on the spiders spinnerets, spigots. Don't you wish 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.000 you had spigots and and uh and generally there are 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.560 two or three spinner at pairs located at the rear 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.480 of the abdomen. Furthermore, each spigot has a valve that 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.720 controls the thickness and speed of the excruted material. So 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.000 the idea here is that when we're talking about the 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.920 silk of a spider, it's not just that they have 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.400 a little spool of thread in there, or that it's 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.160 just you know, a silly string type situation. There is 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:52.160 a manipulation of these of these proteins and the there's 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.720 a an actual weaving that takes place. They're forming a 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.120 material and they act The exact form of the material 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.880 will vary depending on what they're using the silk for. 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.920 I mean, even with with one spider individual, they may 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.760 may be producing various versions of the product depending on 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.560 what they needed for. So as the biggts pulled silk 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.520 molecules or spidrons out of the duct out of the 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.800 ducts and extrude them into the air, the molecules are 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.360 stretched out and linked together and they form these long strands, 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.560 and the the spinnerets wind these strands together to form the 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:31.160 sturdy silk fiber okay um. Most spiders have multiple silk 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.800 glands which secrete different types of silk material optimized for 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.480 those different purposes. So by winding different silk varieties than 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.600 together in varying proportions, spiders can form a wide range 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.400 of fiber materials, and they can also vary fiber consistency 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.560 by adjusting the biggests to form smaller or larger strands. 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.720 So they're they're true marvels. I mean, it's not just 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.720 that the material is great, but just their manipulation of 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.200 it and their creation of it like they are. There's 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.880 just a level of of of engineering and production going 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:04.960 on with with the spider that you know, most people 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.639 take completely for granted. And of course the silk is 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.399 very interesting. As I mentioned a mintigo to engineers for 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.520 like material science purposes to study this to see, you know, 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:16.760 can we make something like this at a larger scale 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.480 that would be useful in building our structures and technology. Yeah, 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.399 because it's it's like a perfect material. It's it's strong, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.320 but it's flexible. Um. It's organic in nature, so you 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.040 can use it in various bio medical properties. You can 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.879 use it. There are a lot of potential applications and 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:40.600 artificial limbs, artificial tissues, artificial tissues, scaffolding. UM. Have also 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.080 read possible for parachuting, like really anywhere you could use 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.639 a really remarkable, strong but flexible material. Uh, spider silk 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.840 has a potential place and spider evolution perfected it and 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.320 we just were biomemetics are just catching up with it, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.480 you know. I have also read many stories over the 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.240 years about using spider venom for medical purposes. One story 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.639 in particular I remember was about using it to treat 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.880 erectile dysfunction. Is that correct? This is correct? Um? And 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.359 And if anyone's like, oh, spider venom, I mean really, 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.360 when you look at at medicines, the vast spectrum of 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.679 medicines that we we we take from the natural world 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.040 in a large part we're making use of poisons and venoms, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.280 you know, just figuring out what does this poison or 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.239 venom do, and how can we interact with it at 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.800 the appropriate dosage, of the appropriate level, How can we 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.679 exploit those properties for our benefit. So in this case, 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.280 let's talk to a second about erectile dysfunction. Existing erectile 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.800 dysfunction drugs manipulate valves controlling blood flow into the penis, 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.920 but they don't always work. In fact, they don't work 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.160 on one out of every three men who require any 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.560 D drug. So we send in the spider. Specifically, we 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.399 spend in the Brazilian wandering spider, also known as the 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:04.880 banana spider. UH. They however, rarely crawl on bananas, which 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.560 you know that will make sense to just a second here. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.520 So these are five inch or thirteen centimeter arachnids. They 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.680 carry a venom that can cause pain, swelling, increased heart rate, 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:19.080 and also preappism, which is a condition that affects those 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.080 blood flow valves that already talked about. UH, And this 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.760 results in an erection that can last for more than 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.639 four hours, is usually painful, and may happen without sexual arousal. 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.840 So we're talking about blood potentially coagulating and clotting inside 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.920 of the erection. That's how dire situation is. So obviously 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.240 that's nothing that one wants for oneself, but it's a 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.000 great example. Here's the venom. We see that it's interacting 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.399 with this area. Uh, that is that is vital for 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.520 erectile drug creation. Like, there's a lot of money to 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.160 be made in manipulating those valves, and so a lot 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.920 of research has already gotten into this. The researchers work 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.879 to identify the natural derived chemicals in the venom that 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.480 might be taken advantage up and so far they found 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.960 that p n t X two six is the active 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.159 compound in the wandering spider venom, and it's essentially a 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.639 biological version of viagra. It even appears to have fewer 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:16.159 side effects than existing E D drugs. Uh. However, to 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.520 conduct a proper trial, you have they have to be 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.239 able to replicate the stuff in large enough quantities. And 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.320 this is a situation we get into with both spider 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:29.719 venom and with spider silk. Spiders are very difficult to farm. Yeah, 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:34.120 I remember reading a story years ago about people who 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.840 were weaving a garment out of spider silk. They were 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.600 taking these uh or or weaving spiders at the Madagascar 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.119 or somewhere uh and harvesting their silk in order to 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.200 weave this dress. That that sounds like a crazy project 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.880 to me. I'm not sure if that's well advised, but anyway, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.320 I think they had to keep capturing and then releasing 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.800 the spiders over and over uh in order to harvest 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.320 their silk, because you can't just keep them, right. Yeah, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.159 it's not like a silk warrant worm, where where we 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:08.720 have a silk producing uh insect that we have that 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.960 we have domesticated and warped over time into just a 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.560 you know, pure silk creating organism. But with spiders, most 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.840 of them are territorial carnivores. They're highly aggressive against anything, 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.640 especially their own kind. There are social spiders that exist, 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:26.960 and these are actually these are actually pretty interesting. I 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.320 hadn't done a lot of reading about them before that. 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.600 They're not quite use social in the manner of bees 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.840 or ants, not team players, right, they don't have casts 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.320 or anything. They're no work or spiders, etcetera. But they 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.040 do cooperate in the rearing of young and the acquisition 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.760 of food. UH. That that being said, most of the 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.080 spiders that people seem to be looking at to potentially 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.679 farm are not social spiders. Uh So anyway, either way 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:54.560 you look, you shake it. Though, way too much work 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.720 would go into any attempt to raise spiders uh in 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.399 little individual enclosures, and you would still get only a 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.440 limited amount of spider venom or spider or spider silk 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.159 out of the the the effort. So it sounds like 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.000