7 Ways to Harvest Rainwater

Covert Entry &; Lifestyle Design with Pat Watson

Local Price Report For Week Of March 6‚ 2024. Prices Are Moving Higher.

25 Hardcore Healthy Foods You Need in Your Emergency Pantry

15 Old-Fashioned Skills Your Great-Grandmother Had

How to Survive During Dangerous Times (also available in paperback at Amazon)

The Democratic Party Is Losing Its Hold on Minority Voters

Director Refutes His Jewishness While Accepting an Oscar

Meet the Brazilian wandering spiders in the genus Phoneutria‚ also referred to as the armed spiders or the banana spiders. The members of this group have one of the most dangerous bites of any spider species on Earth and they have been classified as the world’s most venomous spider many times.Where Do Brazilian Wandering Spiders Live?Though currently the Guinness World Record is shared with another species – the Sydney funnel-web‚ (Atrax robustus) – the Brazilian wandering spiders are a force to be reckoned with. As the name suggests all the Brazilian wandering spiders can be found in northern South America‚ with at least one species having distributions across more than just Brazil‚ writes the University of Florida. However‚ Phoneutria fera and Phoneutria nigriventer are the main species that feature in news articles as they often travel overseas in shipments of bananas‚ causing panic and confusion – and even the closure of supermarkets. What Is The Size Of A Brazilian Wandering Spider?The size of the Brazilian wandering spiders varies between species. Some can be very large with a leg span of 18 centimeters (7.1 inches). The spiders are famously quite aggressive‚ and instead of running from threats will rear up onto their back legs and stand their ground. While the bite is extremely toxic‚ medical professionals are looking at uses for the venom to treat a range of conditions.Image Credit: Tobias Hauke/ShutterstockWhat Are The Effects Of A Brazilian Wandering Spider Bite?Brazilian wandering spiders often make the news because of the unusual symptoms caused to humans after being bitten by one. A 2023 study in Frontiers In Molecular Biosciences suggested there were around 4‚000 cases of people being bitten by Phoneutria nigriventer in Brazil each year. Their venom affects the nervous system‚ causing double vision‚ salvation‚ irregular heartbeat – and even prolonged painful erections‚ known as priapism. In fact‚ because of this‚ their venom is being explored as a possible treatment for erectile dysfunction conditions.Can A Brazilian Wandering Spider Bite Kill You?The neurotoxin PhTx3 is to blame for these symptoms‚ and according to the Independent‚ a wandering spider bite can reportedly be fatal in as little as 60 minutes. However‚ an effective anti-venom is usually enough to save those affected. A study into Phoneutria boliviensis in 2019 suggested that the species had adapted its venom to catch vertebrates as opposed to lizards and amphibians‚ which might explain why the venom is so toxic to humans. It comes as no surprise then that their scientific name Phoneutria means “murderess” in Greek. 

The edge of the solar system is different and the rules that govern the formation and interaction of bodies there are likely to be different too. This region is known as the Kuiper Belt‚ stretching from the orbit of Neptune outward. For the first time‚ the surface composition of two small trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) has been studied from Earth‚ revealing new insights into the formation and evolution of the worlds far away from the Sun.The target of this investigation was a binary pair of icy asteroids – one is called Mors and the other Somnus. The observations revealed organic molecules‚ carbon dioxide and monoxide‚ as well as hydroxyl compounds. They even have some tentative evidence of nitrogen-rich material.“We are studying how the actual chemistry and physics of the TNOs reflect the distribution of molecules based on carbon‚ oxygen‚ nitrogen and hydrogen in the cloud that gave birth to the planets‚ their moons‚ and the small bodies‚” lead author Dr Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano from the University of Central Florida‚ said in a statement.  “These molecules were also the origin of life and water on Earth.”The composition opens another window into the past. Such a binary system had to survive for a long time in a region where the influence of Neptune is enormous and where collisions are far from rare. Plus‚ the Kuiper Belt might be even bigger than previously thought. So the fact that these two bodies still orbit each other and they are remarkably similar‚ indicates that they are truly primitive – survivors of an original population of TNOs.The objects formed well beyond 4.5 billion kilometers (2.7 billion miles) from the Sun. This provides insights into how Neptune migrated during the early solar system and how that affected the different populations of objects that make up the TNOs. They don’t appear to be similar to the plutinos – a TNO class that includes Pluto and shares a 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune.These observations are just two of the nearly 60 observations of the Discovering the Surface Compositions of Trans-Neptunian Objects program. This program is part of the scientific observations being undertaken by JWST.“Before JWST‚ there was no instrument able to obtain information from these objects in that wavelength range‚” de Souza Feliciano continued. “I feel happy to be able to participate in the era inaugurated by the JWST.”The study is published in the journal Astronomy &; Astrophysics.