Once again, another group of research scientists from a university ran out of practical subjects to research and, instead, studied something whacky. This study, conducted by evolutionary biologists at the University of Konstanz in Germany sought to determine if spiders sleep.
Frankly, I really don’t care if
spiders sleep at night. But, if anyone
is interested, the thought of big hairy spiders (with more legs than necessary)
does keep me awake at night.
Researchers, being on the smart
end of the scale, realized they could not simply ask spiders if they sleep. Instead, the team trained
cameras on baby jumping spiders at night to find out.
Had I been advising the research
team; I might have suggested listening for miniature snoring. But, then, I am no evolutionary biologist.
Footage from the study does
indeed suggest spiders sleep. The recorded
footage showed patterns that looked a lot like sleep cycles: The spiders’ legs
twitched and parts of their creepy eyes flickered. This suggested the spiders were in a state of
REM sleep.
On a personal note, I have (given
some of their movies and cuisine) considered the French to be the weirdest
Europeans. I am currently in a state of
reevaluating this matter.
SOURCE: AP
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