Itsy Bitsy Spider ScienceAnja AroraAward: Top 100
School: minnetonka high school This photo demonstrates the presence of tension, adhesion, and electrical charge in the natural world. This image was taken on a cool day in the Florida Everglades, and features a banana spider relaxing on its web. As spiders like these weave their webs, they pull the radial threads tight from the center before fastening them, creating a force of tension strong enough to support their weight and trap their prey. Orb weavers like the banana spider design their webs so that under a force, the web remains the same strength and stiffness throughout, no matter how far away from the center of the web the force acts. These webs are crafted from a silk ten times stronger than rubber, which has unique physical properties due to its adhesive coating that helps a spider trap prey. When compressed, the solid spider silk behaves similarly to a liquid within the adhesive, spooling and coiling inside the sticky droplets. When stretched, the silk behaves like a typical elastic solid. This delicate balance of tension and adhesion allows spiders to trap bugs without bouncing them off their webs or breaking their silk, encouraged by electrical charges in the insects and web. If a nearby insect possesses a positive charge, the negatively charged web is attracted to the insect due to their opposite charges and reaches toward it before ensnaring it. Spiders are not only skilled weavers, but skilled scientists too, using tension, adhesion, and electrical charges to their advantage daily! 
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