Natural History Wanderings

Bay Nature reported

Darwin saw them ballooning. Without any wind. Eventually some scientists figured out their electric secret.

Spiders make different silk for different jobs. Dragline silk, which they spin for the mode of transportation we call “ballooning,” is what the U.S. military considers the best kind. It is five times stronger than steel, and more flexible and resistant to extreme temperatures. This is the stuff that, over a decade ago, inspired humans to splice the gene responsible for its production into a multiplicity of fertilized goat embryos, in the hopes of birthing a goat that would allow people to milk out what spiders will not produce on command.
Read on baynature.org/2025/09/18/how-spiders-fly/