[BONUS] Milking spiders and why this scientist’s grave is covered in gifts: Tiny Show and Tell Us #56

I'm going to share a Tiny Show and Tell Us from listener Molly.

So Molly wrote in and said, "I've always found spiders morbidly fascinating since I was little.

I used to be really scared of them when I was in elementary school, so my mom encouraged me to check out books about them from the school library to learn more, saying that I wouldn't be so scared if I knew more about them.

I'm not so sure she was right about that." [laughs]

[laughs]

"I s- I still find them scary, just in more interesting ways.

Since then, my interests have moved on to other science topics, but spiders are one of the first creatures that sparked my love of science.

Lately, I was reading about funnel-web spiders, and though there's lots to be frightened of, I was so interested to find out that scientists are making life-saving medicine from their deadly venom."

Shout out to Molly's mom.

[laughs]

I was gonna say, her mom's doing exposure therapy on her? [laughs] Wild.

She's like, "Go to the library and read about that thing you're terrified of." Um, I kinda love that.

Have either of you heard of the, of funnel-web spiders before?

I used to hang out at the Oregon Zoo a lot, and there's a really good insect-

Ah

... house thing there, and they have some of these spiders there.

Their webs are like...

You can't see this for people listening, but I'm doing a shape with my hands.

[laughs]

It's a funnel.

It's a funnel.

[laughs]

I have a funnel.

How big were the webs?

I mean, they're not gig- I don't think they're gigantic.