Maybe that explains all those times I've seen spiders seemingly floating in mid air coming towards me.
That or you're reading too much Hunter Thompson.
Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
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Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#12>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
I find the term "citizen scientist" really annoying. Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjetive. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
It’s useful to talk about people who are self funded/ directed vs people who are part of an institution like a corporation or university.
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#13>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
I find the term "citizen scientist" really annoying. Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjetive. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
I share your egalitarian spirit, but I you're a little off here.
I don't think there's anything demeaning or low-class in being a "citizen scientist" or an amateur (which means someone who does something for the love of it, "ama"). And I think it's proper to give respect to those who have gone the distance to become professional scientists. Certainly the few scientists I've been honored to meet pretty much are on a different level than us amateurs.
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#14>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
It's interesting that it also triggered their ballooning, the mad scientist in me wonders if you could create a big field over a large area (like your back yard) and trigger a mass exodus of spiders.
Or attempt a weird version of this raining upwards trick from Now You See Me 2, but with spiders... https://youtu.be/6qBwKnh99ck
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#15FWIW, I saw a small (~1cm length x >1mm wide) caterpillar doing this once in the woods. I thought it was dangling from a tree but then it just kept going.
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#16There's a video version of the University of Bristol research story too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRrUxi6d7so
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#17>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
If a layman did the experiment on his garage, it would be completely (and insistently) ignored by the scientific community for many reasons (most of them good ones).
Why is that? If it's a properly conducted experiment with good documentation why do you think the larger scientific community would ignore this?
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#18>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
I find the term "citizen scientist" really annoying. Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjetive. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
> Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
Science isn’t the club; academia is.
Normally, when we say “scientist”, we mean “academic scientist”—i.e. someone who does science specifically for the enculturated ideals of academia (e.g. the advancement of common knowledge) using the process of academia (e.g. writing papers and sending them off to journals, attending conferences, etc.)
(You might define “academic scientist” in other ways, with something about a treadmill of papers and grants, but I would point out that any definition of academic science has to include tenured science professors, who aren’t subject to the same forces.)
Since academia (i.e. the global cooperation of academics to further knowledge by writing, reading and reviewing papers) is seen, by academics, as an unalloyed good, they see scientists who don’t take part in said academia to be doing something strange, something perhaps sub-optimal for the furthering of scientific knowledge.
And I feel like that’s maybe true, but also often misjudged: many “citizen scientists” are actually academic scientists. They may not be funded by a university or submit papers to Nature, but they collaborate and are in constant communication with people who do, such that their work isn’t advancing the boundaries of science any less optimally than their own work is.
Just the first example off the top of my head: Destin Sandlin, who some might call a “citizen scientist” (he’s a YouTuber who does science journalism but also often his own scientific experiments) works more heavily with “academic scientists” to do his experiments, than most University grad students ever even bother to do. He might be a “travelling” scientist instead of belonging to any particular institution, but he’s certainly an academic through-and-through.
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find the term "citizen scientist" really annoying. Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjetive. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
It’s useful to talk about people who are self funded/ directed vs people who are part of an institution like a corporation or university.
Why is this so necessary currently? Nobody describes Einstein as a citizen scientist even when its main contributions were self funded. Describing Darwin, Mendel or Tesla as citizen scientists would be plain ridiculous. Science is not a religion, is a tool.
Re: Spiders Use Earth's Electric Field to Fly Hundreds of Miles (2018)
#20>This idea—flight by electrostatic repulsion—was first proposed in the early 1800s, around the time of Darwin’s voyage. Peter Gorham, a physicist, resurrected the idea in 2013, and showed that it was mathematically plausible. And now, Morley and Robert have tested it with actual spiders. >First, they showed that spiders can detect electric fields. They put the arachnids on vertical strips of cardboard in the center o…
I find the term "citizen scientist" really annoying. Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjetive. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
> Either you are a scientist or you aren't. If you do science you are a scientist. Point. No need to add any other adjective. Science should not act like a club with first class and second class members.
I hear you, but I'm curious why "citizen" sounds diminutive to your ear. Alternatives I've heard people use are "amatuer", "non-professional" or "backyard" scientist which all have a negative connotation to me. Honestly, I think using "citizen scientist" is to differentiate themselves from non-scientists who claim to be performing science:
1. Professional Scientists (professionals educated in a particular field of science) 2. Citizen Scientists (people attempting to do science, who recognize they are not professionals) 3. Self-described "scientists" (people ignore scientific method and reject science conflicting with their beliefs: industry lobbyists, homeopaths, flat-earthers, etc)
By making space for second-class members it means you can more easily have a club of people trying to do science (#1 and #2) and exclude #3 who seek to hijack science for their own personal purposes.