Good morning, this is UniScoops! The newsletter that’s almost as exciting as Olivia Rodrigo’s international tour announcement. 🇪🇸
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Here’s a taste of what we’re serving today:
Biology: Biology + Physics = an excuse to talk about cute spiders! 🕸️
International Relations: are geopolitical actors rational? 🌎
[BIOLOGY] Biology + Physics = an excuse to talk about cute spiders! 🕸️
(Salticus scenicus, common name: zebra spider. Image chosen because I think they look cute despite not actually spinning webs for the purpose of hunting)
With spider season approaching and many arachnid species starting to reach maturity you may notice a few more spiders scurrying around. For those of you who are scared of spiders this must sound like a nightmare - but perhaps learning a bit more about these misunderstood arthropods will help you see them for the marvellous creatures they are. As you may already know, some spider species spin webs providing many uses for them, one of these is in catching prey! But using webs also comes with some physical challenges that spiders must overcome. One of the ones I find most interesting is how they are not overstimulated by all the non-prey vibrations they might encounter (e.g wind blowing, leaves falling into their web. etc). There are far too many stimuli for their brains to compute all at once - so many spiders distinguish between important vibrations and unimportant ones using their legs instead!
💡 Things to Consider
Morphological computation: This is known as morphological computation, and happens in many different organisms. It even happens in humans, and plays a big role in allowing us to hear (or not hear) certain frequencies. How do you think a spider’s physical characteristics (for spiders this is their legs) filter or amplify certain waves?
Webs and behaviour: Vibrations can also travel through a spider's web, however different parts of the web will vibrate by different amounts (for example the centre will oscillate far more than the edges). How might spider behaviour determine how it experiences an incoming wave? Behaviour here refers to the different decisions a spider would make.
Survival of the fittest: The theory of evolution by means of natural selection helps to explain the diversity of all life on earth. In biology we often talk about evolution in terms of fitness. Something that contributes to increasing chances of producing offspring is said to be an increase in fitness or a fitness benefit. Alternatively, something that would decrease your chances is known as a fitness cost. For the phenomena of morphological computation in spider legs, spiders spinning webs to filter certain waves, and spiders behaving in certain ways to experience waves incident on their webs, how might this increase their overall fitness (and thus be selected for by natural selection)?
🗳️ Poll
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👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…
Boletín - a great newsletter/website for A-Level Spanish students (and teachers) to help you read authentic texts, develop a deeper understanding of the Spanish speaking world, and practise exam questions. Highly recommended by the UniScoops team!
Cambridge University - Pembroke College Interview Webinars (this week: Archaeology, Biology, Classics, English, Maths)
That’s it for this week! We’d like to thank this week’s writer: Tariq Saeed.
Gosh, halfway through September already… we hope you’re all smashing the term! As always, if you want to get in touch (about literally anything), just smack that reply button and we’ll get back to you ASAP. Have a great week 😎
