Скачать или смотреть So spiders can fly using electricity?

This video explores how spiders travel through the air using a behavior called ballooning, and what recent research suggests about the role of Earth’s electric field in this strange form of flight. Moving from early natural history observations in the 19th century to modern experiments in physics and biology, it looks at how scientists went from assuming spiders simply rode the wind to discovering that spider silk can actually respond to atmospheric electricity.

Along the way, the video explains how silk is produced, how tiny electric forces can lift lightweight animals, and why spiders have been found far out at sea and high above the ground. It connects classic field notes from naturalists like Charles Darwin to contemporary lab studies on electrostatic forces, giving a clear picture of how our understanding of spider ballooning has changed over time.