By Asa Stahl
Scientists have literally reanimated dead spiders to do their bidding.
In a new field dubbed “necrobotics,” researchers converted the corpses of wolf spiders into grippers that can manipulate objects. All the team had to do was stab a syringe into a dead spider’s back and superglue it in place. Pushing fluid in and out of the cadaver made its legs clench open and shut, the researchers report July 25 in Advanced Science.
The idea was born from a simple question, explains Faye Yap, a mechanical engineer at Rice University in Houston. Why do spiders curl up when they die?