Necrobotics: A New (Gruesome) Branch of Science
We may prefer to leave them well alone, but from a technical point of view a dead spider turns out to be very interesting. More than that, it's the basis of a new field of scientific research that researchers at Rice University have created: necrobotics.
When some scientists at Rice University found a dead spider in their lab in 2019, they decided not to sweep it away (as we would have done), but instead they examined it. They wondered why dead spiders always curl up when they die. They also tried to use a hollow needle and some air to make the spider’s legs move again and turn them into a "gripping robot”.
Curled-up legs
Spiders use hydraulics to move: they send haemolymph – their "blood" – to their legs, pressurising them and making them extend. When the pressure is gone, their legs contract again. When spiders die, they can no longer actively create pressure in their legs, so their legs curl up at death.
Necrobotics
The researchers felt that there had to be a way of using this system. They even dedicated an entirely new field of scientific research to it: necrobotics. It focuses on the use of biotic materials as robotic parts, in this case: using dead spiders as grabbers.
Spider grabber
The researchers inserted a hypodermic needle into the spider's head and injected air into it to open and close the legs. This test found that a spider is able to lift more than 130 percent of its own body weight and the legs could open and close as many as 700 times without breaking.
The researchers can see lots of potential for their biodegradable "spider grabber”. It is inconspicuous in nature, so it could be used as an easy way of capturing small insects or other living organisms for scientific research. In future, the team plans to try to make each leg move separately and conduct experiments with other spider species or even scorpions.