Bio-physicist Bob Suter goes spider hunting in a hot air balloon.

Ballooning spiders

Whether you find spiders fearful or fascinating, they are to be admired for their web-spinning and prey-catching techniques, and the remarkable methods they use to move from one place to another. In this album, researchers in Denmark and the United States use an 8-legged robot and a virtual spider, high-speed photography, a hot air balloon and a rowing boat to explore the biophysics of spiders. In the audio track, Dr David Robinson of The Open University explains how advances in technology allow advances in scientific knowledge and understanding. This material forms part of The Open University course S204 Biology: uniformity and diversity.

Share Ballooning spiders

Sign up to save your podcasts

Ballooning spiders

Ballooning spiders

More shows like Investigating spiders: life on a thread - for iPad/Mac/PC

Bon départ: beginners' French - Audio

Rheumatoid arthritis - a long term condition - for iPod/iPhone

Getting started on Classical Latin - for iBooks

Learning Photoshop Lightroom 4 - for iPod/iPhone

Writing Poetry - Audio

Reading Political Philosophy: From Machiavelli to Mill - Audio

Start writing essays - Audio

Beginners’ Chinese - Audio

Critical Social Psychology - for iPod/iPhone

Andante: beginners' Italian - Audio