Have you ever had one of those days when your latest musical obsession has an eerie relevance to an experience in your life? The latest song I've been playing the hell out of, Beauty in the Eye by Milk Carton Superstars kicks off with the awesome line:
You have the greenest eyes for someone who never recycles anything.
I was planning on posting a link to the song anyway, but my hand is forced by circumstances. My co-worker **REDACTED** is, to put it succinctly, a flashlight nerd. He has a plethora of flashlights, ranging from tiny keychain AAA-cell LEDs to a fifteen-pound monster that could throw a circle of light onto the full moon (on the one occasion he brought this one to work, the cops paid a visit to see what the hell was going on- that's how bright the sucker is). Yesterday, he brought a Dorcy LED headlamp to work and he discovered that it was perfect for spotting wolf spiders by creating a bright green "eyeshine". For some reason, our site flashlights are not good for spider spotting, so he left his headlamp with me at the end of his shift and I went out spider spotting.
It's remarkable how pronounced spidershine is, you can see the green luminosity from a distance of twenty feet, easily. We have a huge compost heap on site, and the thing looked like a deposit of emeralds from the reflections of hundreds of spider eyes. Talk about finding beauty in the strangest of places!
For a taste of spidershine, this video of a single spider gives you a good idea of it... now multiply this effect a few hundred times!
UPDATE: Actually thinking with my brain, the reason why the headlamp gives better results in spiderspotting is probably due to the fact that the light is emanating from the vicinity of one's eyes, so it's a matter of positioning rather than spectrum. Gonna have to test this out next midnight shift.
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8 comments:
Very cool!
Fishing spider was very big, also. (Of course, I thought it was a wolf spider at first.)
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Pretty awesome how the spider just sits there.
Eeeeew. Starting to agree w/ Jennifer.
Fishing spider was very big, also. (Of course, I thought it was a wolf spider at first.)
I'm pretty sure the way to tell the wolf spiders is by the configuration of their eyes.
Pretty awesome how the spider just sits there.
If you were hairy, scary, and poisonous, you'd just sit there too.
Eeeeew. Starting to agree w/ Jennifer.
My mom recently got bit by a brown recluse, so she may be in agreement with you both. Her thumb swelled up to the size of a sausage and she had to go on serious antibiotics.
If you were hairy, scary, and poisonous, you'd just sit there too.
Ask MB.
The flickering of the light from the spidra's eyes is way cool.
There might have been mention at Riddled -- in the Explaining Voice -- of the one-dimensional spidra retina, which they scan back and forth across the focal plane of the eye to pick out what they want to know. Since the reflected light is what has bounced off the retina, that's what we're seeing in the video.
Ask MB.
Heh, indeed!
There might have been mention at Riddled -- in the Explaining Voice -- of the one-dimensional spidra retina, which they scan back and forth across the focal plane of the eye to pick out what they want to know. Since the reflected light is what has bounced off the retina, that's what we're seeing in the video.
When Smut drops science, it's not science fiction!
On behalf of Milk Carton Superstars, thanks for the kind words about our song Beauty in the Eye!
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