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Update (March 29, 2022): The paper described in this article was published today in PNAS.
T
o hunt for alien life, human scientists build bigger and more sensitive arrays in the hopes of picking up a radio transmission from a faraway world. It turns out that Larinioides sclopetarius, also known as the bridge spider or gray cross spider, uses a similar trick. Instead of hunting for E.T., the spider can tune in to its surroundings and hear across great distances by treating its round, orb-shaped web like a comparatively giant acoustic array, according to new research.
The bridge spider uses its web as an engineered “external ear” up to 10,000 times the size of its body, according to a preprint study posted to bioRxiv on October 18. The discovery, which has not yet been peer reviewed, challenges many assumptions that scientists have held for years ...