Amazing Spiders and Their Webs

During the process of making a web the spider will use its own body for measurements, a very practical and ergonomic design feature of any web. This will allow the spider to move quickly and efficiently around its own web with very few faults.

Administering certain drugs to spiders has an effect on the structure of the webs they build. It has also been observed that being in Earth's orbit has an effect on the structure of spider webs in space.

Spider webs are rich in vitamin K which is used to help stop bleeding. Spider webs were used centuries ago as a coagulant in place of gause pads. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web)

If you thought the elephant and the mouse relationship was hard to fathom check out Fritz Volltrath, who is studying the route a spider takes to build a web as an indication of the decisions it makes along the way. He then uses this information to better understand elephant tracks and the cognitive processes elephants go through to produce them. (From "Oxford Today" Hillary Issue 2007)