Alvin Smith had his eureka moment not in the bath, but in the swimming pool. 'I was swimming round the pool, making little waves, and it struck me how much power there was in the displacement of the water,' he remembers. 'You think of a 500-tonne boat: a wave comes along, lifts that whole boat, and then drops it down again. You must be able to harness some of that, I thought.'
His subsequent invention would have made Archimedes proud, and should be making the renewables industry very excited.
Dubbed 'Searaser', it consists of what looks like a navigation buoy, but is in fact a simple arrangement of ballast and floats connected by a piston. As a wave passes the device, the float is lifted, raising the piston and compressing water. The float sinks back down on the tail of the wave on to a second float, compressing water again on the downstroke.
What is particularly clever about Searaser, however, is its simplicity. Where most marine energy devices have sealed, lubricated innards and complex electronics, Searaser is lubricated entirely by seawater, has no electronic components and is even self-cleaning. Smith describes it as 'Third-World mechanics', but this belies the sophistication of the concept.
'The beauty of it is that we're only making a pump, and bringing water ashore,' he explains. 'All the other technology needed to generate the electricity already exists.'
Searaser is designed to pump water either straight through a sea-level turbine to generate electricity, or up to a clifftop reservoir, where the water could be stored until needed, then allowed to flow back down to the sea through turbines, generating electricity on demand.
The second option is the one about which Smith is most passionate. By effectively storing the energy generated by Searaser to be used on demand, his system would solve a problem that dogs almost all renewable technologies – their variability. Energy that can be summoned at will is not only more valuable, but also allows the grid to compensate for other, less easily controlled renewables such as wind and solar.
Early trials of the prototype Searaser, one of which was completed in April, have proved encouraging. Despite being less than a tenth of the size of the version he hopes will eventually be supplying power to our homes, Smith's homemade machine managed to pump some 112,000 litres of water a day during the trial, at times operating from waves a mere 6in high.
The eventual machine will be capable of generating 1 megawatt of electricity – enough to supply some 1,700 homes – at prices that the team behind Searaser believe will be lower than most other renewable technologies.
As an intermediate step, a trial of two midsize machines should go ahead towards the end of this year, with a university invited to monitor the trial and provide independent accreditation of the results. Although these machines won't generate electricity (they will simply pump water through a flow meter to determine their potential) they will demonstrate whether the technology can work for prolonged periods and in rough conditions.
For Smith, however – a man who could use a welder by the age of eight – the incremental steps between prototype and commercial deployment seem almost an irritation. His vision is already far advanced, and includes using the pressurised saltwater generated by Searaser to produce drinking water, using the same reverse osmosis process used in conventional, energy-hungry desalination plants.
'All you'd have to do is reduce the size of the piston and increase the size of the floats to increase the pressure,' he explains.
He has also put plenty of thought into how he would persuade planners and landowners to allow him to build reservoirs on top of cliffs to provide the energy storage for Searaser.
'The planning will frighten everyone,' he says, 'but if you were trying to produce as much energy from wind turbines, they'd be very visible; a reservoir you'd only see from above.'
Smith has also put thought into how the reservoir could be made as water-tight as possible – vital to avoid saltwater leaching into soils. By double-lining the reservoirs and including an outlet pipe in between the two linings, you would instantly be able to see if the uppermost lining had a puncture by watching the end of the outlet pipe.
'If you saw any water coming out, you'd know you had a leak and you could drain down the reservoir and sort it out,' he says.
Beyond being simply functional, however, Smith believes the reservoirs could be beautiful, providing recreational spaces for watersports or sites for shellfish farmers. 'I bet the birds would love it, too,' he adds.
Although Searaser is clearly a commercial project and Smith hopes to see a return on his patents, he is also keen to see the technology deployed abroad, given that its simplicity lends itself to installation and maintenance in the less-industrialised world.
'It's a modular system: a community could start off with two or three machines, and expand as necessary. It can go round the globe, it really can,' he says.
Friday, June 12, 2009
New York declares war on geese to prevent airport bird strikes
Authorities in New York have declared war on the large flocks of Canada geese that congregate around the city's airports, and will cull 2,000 in an attempt to prevent a recurrence of the bird strike that forced a passenger plane to ditch in the Hudson river earlier this year.
The cull will target geese at open areas and more than 40 public parks in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx within five miles of regional airports.
The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the effort was justified by the dangers the geese pose to aircraft. In January, the pilot of a US Airways flight was forced to make an emergency water landing after a bird strike, with his passengers making a miraculous escape from the aircraft as it floated on the freezing waters of the Hudson.
"The serious dangers that Canada geese pose to aviation became all too clear when geese struck US Airways Flight 1549," he said in a statement on Thursday. "The incident served as a catalyst to strengthen our efforts in removing geese from, and discouraging them from nesting on, city property near our runways."
The authority managing New York's three airports, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, had already had a programme to control bird populations through shooting and trapping birds, and removing their nests.
LaGuardia, which has a particularly bad history with birds, has had a programme of evicting geese for the last five years, and has removed 1,250 during that time. In the past, some of the offending geese were donated to food banks. That practice will not continue.
Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, told reporters the geese would be herded to a collection point, and then taken off site where they would be put down using carbon dioxide in methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Conservation officials say there is a permanent population of about 20,000 Canada geese in the region. Another 25,000 are believed to pass through the area during the migration season. It is believed that the US Airways flight was brought down by migrating birds.
The cull is the first step in a major action plan to prevent birds strikes in the aftermath of the US Airways near-disaster, involving representatives from the city, airport authorities in New York and New Jersey, and the US agriculture department.
Bird strikes have been rising across the US, from 1,750 in 1990 to 7,666 in 2001 according to the federal aviation authority. Canada geese, whose population have risen to 5.5m last year, have emerged as a particular culprit. There have been 77 collisions between planes and geese in the New York area over the last decade, according to the federal aviation authority.
The city is planning to fill in a large hollow at Rikers Island, just north of LaGuardia, that had been popular among geese. At JFK airport, the authorities are also installing a new bird radar system, and have taken on an additional wildlife biologist to step up safety measures. The city will erect signs in parks warning people against feeding geese, and will teach wildlife supervisors in the field how to fire shotguns.
The cull will target geese at open areas and more than 40 public parks in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx within five miles of regional airports.
The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the effort was justified by the dangers the geese pose to aircraft. In January, the pilot of a US Airways flight was forced to make an emergency water landing after a bird strike, with his passengers making a miraculous escape from the aircraft as it floated on the freezing waters of the Hudson.
"The serious dangers that Canada geese pose to aviation became all too clear when geese struck US Airways Flight 1549," he said in a statement on Thursday. "The incident served as a catalyst to strengthen our efforts in removing geese from, and discouraging them from nesting on, city property near our runways."
The authority managing New York's three airports, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, had already had a programme to control bird populations through shooting and trapping birds, and removing their nests.
LaGuardia, which has a particularly bad history with birds, has had a programme of evicting geese for the last five years, and has removed 1,250 during that time. In the past, some of the offending geese were donated to food banks. That practice will not continue.
Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, told reporters the geese would be herded to a collection point, and then taken off site where they would be put down using carbon dioxide in methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Conservation officials say there is a permanent population of about 20,000 Canada geese in the region. Another 25,000 are believed to pass through the area during the migration season. It is believed that the US Airways flight was brought down by migrating birds.
The cull is the first step in a major action plan to prevent birds strikes in the aftermath of the US Airways near-disaster, involving representatives from the city, airport authorities in New York and New Jersey, and the US agriculture department.
Bird strikes have been rising across the US, from 1,750 in 1990 to 7,666 in 2001 according to the federal aviation authority. Canada geese, whose population have risen to 5.5m last year, have emerged as a particular culprit. There have been 77 collisions between planes and geese in the New York area over the last decade, according to the federal aviation authority.
The city is planning to fill in a large hollow at Rikers Island, just north of LaGuardia, that had been popular among geese. At JFK airport, the authorities are also installing a new bird radar system, and have taken on an additional wildlife biologist to step up safety measures. The city will erect signs in parks warning people against feeding geese, and will teach wildlife supervisors in the field how to fire shotguns.
BA boss: Airline passengers will have to pay for pollution
Airline passengers will have to pay for the environmental impact of their journeys through fare increases if carriers join a global emissions trading scheme, according to British Airways boss Willie Walsh.
Airlines could contribute $5bn (£3bn) a year to help developing countries fight climate change if a scheme goes ahead, according to the Aviation Global Deal Group, whose members include BA, Virgin and Air France-KLM.
Under one version the industry would be limited to an amount of carbon dioxide emissions – for instance, 97% of 2005 emissions in 2005 – and would receive free carbon permits equating to 85% of its permitted emissions, and would bid for the rest. A proportion of those auction proceeds would go to developing countries.
The group made the proposal amid mounting frustration over negotiations for the Copenhagen climate change conference in December, which will thrash out a sequel to the Kyoto agreement. Airlines are concerned their representative body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, will not produce a robust proposal in time and could expose them to measures such as an international air travel levy.
Walsh said fares would "have to" rise in order to cover the cost of a global trading scheme. Walsh added that the sector's "unsustainable" financial state, with a total loss of $9bn forecast this year, made fare rises inevitable. "This is going to add billions to the industry's cost base and the industry is unlikely to be able to absorb the cost. For the industry to play its part the people who benefit from that industry will have to pay for it as well."
Walsh said the European Union should use its emissions trading scheme as a fore-runner for a global programme but not attempt to drag in non-EU airlines lest they take legal action.
Airlines could contribute $5bn (£3bn) a year to help developing countries fight climate change if a scheme goes ahead, according to the Aviation Global Deal Group, whose members include BA, Virgin and Air France-KLM.
Under one version the industry would be limited to an amount of carbon dioxide emissions – for instance, 97% of 2005 emissions in 2005 – and would receive free carbon permits equating to 85% of its permitted emissions, and would bid for the rest. A proportion of those auction proceeds would go to developing countries.
The group made the proposal amid mounting frustration over negotiations for the Copenhagen climate change conference in December, which will thrash out a sequel to the Kyoto agreement. Airlines are concerned their representative body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, will not produce a robust proposal in time and could expose them to measures such as an international air travel levy.
Walsh said fares would "have to" rise in order to cover the cost of a global trading scheme. Walsh added that the sector's "unsustainable" financial state, with a total loss of $9bn forecast this year, made fare rises inevitable. "This is going to add billions to the industry's cost base and the industry is unlikely to be able to absorb the cost. For the industry to play its part the people who benefit from that industry will have to pay for it as well."
Walsh said the European Union should use its emissions trading scheme as a fore-runner for a global programme but not attempt to drag in non-EU airlines lest they take legal action.
US says it will not demand binding carbon cuts from China
Progress towards a global treaty to fight climate change took an important step forward today when the US said it would not demand that China commits to binding cuts of its greenhouse gas emissions.
The move came on the last day of the latest round of UN climate change talks involving 183 nations, which aim to produce a deal in Copenhagen in December.
Jonathan Pershing, head of the US delegation in Bonn, said developing nations – seeking to grow their economies and alleviate poverty – would instead be asked to commit to other actions. These include boosting energy efficiency standards and improving the take-up of renewable energy, but would not deliver specific reductions. He said: "We're saying that the actions of developing countries should be binding, not the outcomes of those actions."
Only developed nations, including the US, would be expected to guarantee cuts. The pledge was included in a US blueprint for a climate change deal submitted to the Bonn meeting, which Pershing said was based on the need for the rich nations to cut greenhouse gases 80% by 2050.
The US plan, if approved, could replace the existing Kyoto protocol. The lack of any carbon targets for developing nations in the Kyoto protocol was the reason the US never ratified that treaty. While such cuts were believed to be unrealistic even in the new treaty, the first clear acceptance of that at the UN talks by the US is being seen as significant. EU officials said they were studying the US proposal.
China and the US are the two biggest polluters in the world, making their positions on the deal critical. In a separate submission to the talks, China was among a group of developing nations that called on rich countries including Britain and the US to cut emissions by 2020 by 40% on 1990 levels. According to environmental group WWF, commitments made by developing countries so far add up only to about a 10% cut — Japan this week proposed an effective 8% cut in its emissions.
Observers see the 40% demand as unrealistic, suggesting the US move amounts to blinking first in the negotiations. But back channel negotiations, revealed by the Guardian last month, showed the two nations are searching for a deal.
John Ashe, who chaired discussions at Bonn on how Kyoto targets could be extended, said many of the targets put forward could yet be revised as the Copenhagen deadline loomed. "There is always an initial move and then a final move. I don't believe we're in the final stage yet."
He said China should agree to take actions to control emissions that were measured and reported to the international community.
In Washington, Todd Stern, the state department's climate change envoy, said the US still expected China to take serious moves towards a cleaner economy. "We are expecting China to reduce their emissions very considerably compared to where they would otherwise be [with] a business as usual trajectory."
At the end of the talks, the UN's top climate official said significant progess had been made. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: "A big achievement of this meeting is that governments have made it clearer what they want to see in the Copenhagen agreed outcome."
But green campaigners criticised the failure to resolve any major issues, such as an overall target for 2020 emission reductions or concrete proposals on funding for poor nations to deal with global warming.
Antonio Hill of Oxfam said: "The countries that created the nightmare are refusing to lift a finger to prevent it becoming a reality. Rich country delegates have spent two weeks talking but have done nothing on the issues that really matter. They may be kidding themselves they are working towards a deal but they are not kidding anyone else."
The move came on the last day of the latest round of UN climate change talks involving 183 nations, which aim to produce a deal in Copenhagen in December.
Jonathan Pershing, head of the US delegation in Bonn, said developing nations – seeking to grow their economies and alleviate poverty – would instead be asked to commit to other actions. These include boosting energy efficiency standards and improving the take-up of renewable energy, but would not deliver specific reductions. He said: "We're saying that the actions of developing countries should be binding, not the outcomes of those actions."
Only developed nations, including the US, would be expected to guarantee cuts. The pledge was included in a US blueprint for a climate change deal submitted to the Bonn meeting, which Pershing said was based on the need for the rich nations to cut greenhouse gases 80% by 2050.
The US plan, if approved, could replace the existing Kyoto protocol. The lack of any carbon targets for developing nations in the Kyoto protocol was the reason the US never ratified that treaty. While such cuts were believed to be unrealistic even in the new treaty, the first clear acceptance of that at the UN talks by the US is being seen as significant. EU officials said they were studying the US proposal.
China and the US are the two biggest polluters in the world, making their positions on the deal critical. In a separate submission to the talks, China was among a group of developing nations that called on rich countries including Britain and the US to cut emissions by 2020 by 40% on 1990 levels. According to environmental group WWF, commitments made by developing countries so far add up only to about a 10% cut — Japan this week proposed an effective 8% cut in its emissions.
Observers see the 40% demand as unrealistic, suggesting the US move amounts to blinking first in the negotiations. But back channel negotiations, revealed by the Guardian last month, showed the two nations are searching for a deal.
John Ashe, who chaired discussions at Bonn on how Kyoto targets could be extended, said many of the targets put forward could yet be revised as the Copenhagen deadline loomed. "There is always an initial move and then a final move. I don't believe we're in the final stage yet."
He said China should agree to take actions to control emissions that were measured and reported to the international community.
In Washington, Todd Stern, the state department's climate change envoy, said the US still expected China to take serious moves towards a cleaner economy. "We are expecting China to reduce their emissions very considerably compared to where they would otherwise be [with] a business as usual trajectory."
At the end of the talks, the UN's top climate official said significant progess had been made. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: "A big achievement of this meeting is that governments have made it clearer what they want to see in the Copenhagen agreed outcome."
But green campaigners criticised the failure to resolve any major issues, such as an overall target for 2020 emission reductions or concrete proposals on funding for poor nations to deal with global warming.
Antonio Hill of Oxfam said: "The countries that created the nightmare are refusing to lift a finger to prevent it becoming a reality. Rich country delegates have spent two weeks talking but have done nothing on the issues that really matter. They may be kidding themselves they are working towards a deal but they are not kidding anyone else."
Astronauts set for big gathering
Space is about to get a bit crowded.
Seven shuttle astronauts will blast off from Florida on Saturday to join up with six colleagues already on the International Space Station (ISS).
The orbiting platform has never before had so many individuals moving around it at the same time.
The Endeavour ship is scheduled to lift off at 0717 local time (1117 GMT).
The flight-time to the ISS is just three days.
The union some 350km above the planet will be a significant moment for the space station project as it nears the end of its construction phase.
The 13 spacefarers represent all the major station partners, with seven from the US, two each from Russia and Canada, and one each from Europe and Japan.
Their ages range from 37 to 55; all but one are men.
Although 13 people have been in space at the same time once before, in 1995, they were not all in the same place.
"I don't know what it's going to be like," said Endeavour commander Mark Polansky, a veteran of two prior spaceflights. "We know it's going to be challenging with 13 people aboard."
His ship is visiting the station to deliver the final components of Japan's Kibo laboratory.
During five spacewalks, an external platform will be added to the lab which will enable those experiments to be performed that require materials to be exposed to the harsh environment of space.
Endeavour astronauts also have to fit equipment to the exterior of the platform such as batteries and a spare space-to-ground antenna.
In addition, Endeavour will deliver a new crew member (Tim Kopra) to the ISS and bring back another (Koichi Wakata) who has lived aboard the platform for more than three months.
Endeavour is making the 127th space shuttle flight, and the 29th to the station.
Seven more flights to the station remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.
Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth on Monday, 29 June.
Seven shuttle astronauts will blast off from Florida on Saturday to join up with six colleagues already on the International Space Station (ISS).
The orbiting platform has never before had so many individuals moving around it at the same time.
The Endeavour ship is scheduled to lift off at 0717 local time (1117 GMT).
The flight-time to the ISS is just three days.
The union some 350km above the planet will be a significant moment for the space station project as it nears the end of its construction phase.
The 13 spacefarers represent all the major station partners, with seven from the US, two each from Russia and Canada, and one each from Europe and Japan.
Their ages range from 37 to 55; all but one are men.
Although 13 people have been in space at the same time once before, in 1995, they were not all in the same place.
"I don't know what it's going to be like," said Endeavour commander Mark Polansky, a veteran of two prior spaceflights. "We know it's going to be challenging with 13 people aboard."
His ship is visiting the station to deliver the final components of Japan's Kibo laboratory.
During five spacewalks, an external platform will be added to the lab which will enable those experiments to be performed that require materials to be exposed to the harsh environment of space.
Endeavour astronauts also have to fit equipment to the exterior of the platform such as batteries and a spare space-to-ground antenna.
In addition, Endeavour will deliver a new crew member (Tim Kopra) to the ISS and bring back another (Koichi Wakata) who has lived aboard the platform for more than three months.
Endeavour is making the 127th space shuttle flight, and the 29th to the station.
Seven more flights to the station remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.
Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth on Monday, 29 June.
Welcome to the Spiderlab
An unmistakeable hiss fills the air.
I peer down, and spot a plastic container.
The source of the noise scuttles into view - a cockroach. In fact, the box is filled to the brim with them, with a few other writhing and wriggling creepy-crawlies thrown in for good measure.
"Dinner," explains my host, pointing to the dozens of very large, rather hairy and extremely leggy tarantulas eyeing this bug banquet.
Welcome to the Spiderlab.
Tangled web
Sara Goodacre, who is showing me around her unusual laboratory based at the University of Nottingham, is fascinated by arachnids.
"They are just so neat," she says
And her team is especially interested in tarantulas, thanks to the incredible webs that they spin.
Because spider silk is so strong - stronger even than steel, lightweight and very, very stretchy - researchers envisage a huge host of commercial applications, ranging from medical sutures to clothing.
But to achieve this means having access to large amounts of the material.
And unlike silkworms, spiders do not make good factory workers - thanks in part to their tendency to eat each other if kept in close confines. So the ultimate aim is to find a way of making artificial silk.
Much research so far has focused on orb weavers - spiders that belong to the Araneidae family, which includes some of the species that you might find at the bottom of your garden - mainly because the silk that they produce is especially tough and elastic.
Orb weavers and their silk have been well studied
But although scientists have been able to decode some of the orb weavers' genes that are responsible for silk and even create genetically modified goats that produce the silk protein in their milk, creating a useable material has proved very tricky.
So the Nottingham researchers are trying a different tactic.
Dr Goodacre says: "Tarantula silk really is one of the unexplored areas - we don't know what it is made of or how useful it might be to us.
"Nobody has really looked at these spiders. It might just be that the silk is very, very different from that in the other groups studied this far.
"But we just don't know."
Ferociously fanged females means that mating is a precarious business for male tarantulas...
There are about 900 species of tarantula (most belong to the Theraphosidae grouping), and they inhabit a very different position on the arachnid family tree compared with the well-studied orb weavers.
Dr Goodacre explains: "It is of the order of several hundred million years ago that tarantulas branched off from the other spiders.
"And they have been separate since then - so [in terms of the silk] evolution has had a fair amount of time to produce something different."
And not only is their silk unlike that of other spiders, there also appears to be a lot of variation amongst the silk types produced by the many different tarantula species
So in the Spiderlab, goliath bird eaters - the biggest of all the tarantulas, the highly aggressive Tanzanian orange baboon tarantula and the more docile Chilean rose tarantula, which can be kept as a pet, can be found sitting alongside each other - albeit separated by glass, to avoid any spider-eat-spider incidents.
There are about 30 of them, although that number might soon rise after we witnessed a pair mating: two sets of eight legs entwining to become 16, their bodies merging into a weird spidery mass, until the male makes a very, very quick exit, nearly running out of the tank.
There's clearly no spider pillow talk for a tarantula trying to avoid the fangs of a ferocious female.
Silk varieties
By looking at these different species, Dr Goodacre is aiming to find out why one type of spider has managed to produce so many varieties of silk.
She says: "We have some species that are ground dwellers that lay silk above the ground, others actually dig down and build a silken burrow, whereas others climb up trees to make their webs.
"What we are trying to understand is whether they are all using the same kind of silk and do they use it in the same way?"
The first task for the team has been to try to uncover the genes that might be involved in making the silk
So far, PhD student Jon Bull has isolated genetic material from the genes that are expressed in tarantula spinnerets - the body parts that turn the liquid silk molecules into a fibre.
The next step is to find out exactly what these genes are, how many there are, how they are linked to one another and what they make.
Dr Goodacre explains: "We know a little bit about the genes for silk in orb weaver spiders, but at the moment we know virtually nothing about the genes that make silks in anything else.
"The jury is really out on whether the silk genes that you find in a tarantula are really very similar to those you find in an orb weaver, given that the end product looks quite different."
Coming unstuck
Even if the team is able to uncover the genetic secrets of tarantula silk, learn about its complex chemical properties, and even go as far as synthesising their own silk protein - they will still face a major challenge that has slowed or even halted many other artificial silk projects: spinning it into a useful product
Spiders pump silk protein through their spinerettes, transforming it from a messy solution to the thin fibre that makes up their intricate webs.
Dr Goodacre says: "It is analogous to having wool on a sheep's coat and making it into a yarn - you have to know how to spin it properly."
The spinnerets are able to carefully control the acidity, pressure and concentration of the silk protein, to allow a spider to spin its web with such apparent ease.
But replicating this complex process in the lab is proving far from easy.
It seems that nature's solution is not quite a simple as it first appears - and the days of being able to create vast amounts of this useful product may be some way off.
Dr Goodacre admits the team is at the beginning of a long road of research, but is still confident that tarantulas could hold the key to unravelling some of the secrets of spider silk.
She says: "If you are trying to predict what would be a good silk to make, rather than think of all of the alternatives you can make yourself, why not just look at what other spiders like tarantulas already do?
"Several million years of evolution is likely to have generated some pretty good solutions."
I peer down, and spot a plastic container.
The source of the noise scuttles into view - a cockroach. In fact, the box is filled to the brim with them, with a few other writhing and wriggling creepy-crawlies thrown in for good measure.
"Dinner," explains my host, pointing to the dozens of very large, rather hairy and extremely leggy tarantulas eyeing this bug banquet.
Welcome to the Spiderlab.
Tangled web
Sara Goodacre, who is showing me around her unusual laboratory based at the University of Nottingham, is fascinated by arachnids.
"They are just so neat," she says
And her team is especially interested in tarantulas, thanks to the incredible webs that they spin.
Because spider silk is so strong - stronger even than steel, lightweight and very, very stretchy - researchers envisage a huge host of commercial applications, ranging from medical sutures to clothing.
But to achieve this means having access to large amounts of the material.
And unlike silkworms, spiders do not make good factory workers - thanks in part to their tendency to eat each other if kept in close confines. So the ultimate aim is to find a way of making artificial silk.
Much research so far has focused on orb weavers - spiders that belong to the Araneidae family, which includes some of the species that you might find at the bottom of your garden - mainly because the silk that they produce is especially tough and elastic.
Orb weavers and their silk have been well studied
But although scientists have been able to decode some of the orb weavers' genes that are responsible for silk and even create genetically modified goats that produce the silk protein in their milk, creating a useable material has proved very tricky.
So the Nottingham researchers are trying a different tactic.
Dr Goodacre says: "Tarantula silk really is one of the unexplored areas - we don't know what it is made of or how useful it might be to us.
"Nobody has really looked at these spiders. It might just be that the silk is very, very different from that in the other groups studied this far.
"But we just don't know."
Ferociously fanged females means that mating is a precarious business for male tarantulas...
There are about 900 species of tarantula (most belong to the Theraphosidae grouping), and they inhabit a very different position on the arachnid family tree compared with the well-studied orb weavers.
Dr Goodacre explains: "It is of the order of several hundred million years ago that tarantulas branched off from the other spiders.
"And they have been separate since then - so [in terms of the silk] evolution has had a fair amount of time to produce something different."
And not only is their silk unlike that of other spiders, there also appears to be a lot of variation amongst the silk types produced by the many different tarantula species
So in the Spiderlab, goliath bird eaters - the biggest of all the tarantulas, the highly aggressive Tanzanian orange baboon tarantula and the more docile Chilean rose tarantula, which can be kept as a pet, can be found sitting alongside each other - albeit separated by glass, to avoid any spider-eat-spider incidents.
There are about 30 of them, although that number might soon rise after we witnessed a pair mating: two sets of eight legs entwining to become 16, their bodies merging into a weird spidery mass, until the male makes a very, very quick exit, nearly running out of the tank.
There's clearly no spider pillow talk for a tarantula trying to avoid the fangs of a ferocious female.
Silk varieties
By looking at these different species, Dr Goodacre is aiming to find out why one type of spider has managed to produce so many varieties of silk.
She says: "We have some species that are ground dwellers that lay silk above the ground, others actually dig down and build a silken burrow, whereas others climb up trees to make their webs.
"What we are trying to understand is whether they are all using the same kind of silk and do they use it in the same way?"
The first task for the team has been to try to uncover the genes that might be involved in making the silk
So far, PhD student Jon Bull has isolated genetic material from the genes that are expressed in tarantula spinnerets - the body parts that turn the liquid silk molecules into a fibre.
The next step is to find out exactly what these genes are, how many there are, how they are linked to one another and what they make.
Dr Goodacre explains: "We know a little bit about the genes for silk in orb weaver spiders, but at the moment we know virtually nothing about the genes that make silks in anything else.
"The jury is really out on whether the silk genes that you find in a tarantula are really very similar to those you find in an orb weaver, given that the end product looks quite different."
Coming unstuck
Even if the team is able to uncover the genetic secrets of tarantula silk, learn about its complex chemical properties, and even go as far as synthesising their own silk protein - they will still face a major challenge that has slowed or even halted many other artificial silk projects: spinning it into a useful product
Spiders pump silk protein through their spinerettes, transforming it from a messy solution to the thin fibre that makes up their intricate webs.
Dr Goodacre says: "It is analogous to having wool on a sheep's coat and making it into a yarn - you have to know how to spin it properly."
The spinnerets are able to carefully control the acidity, pressure and concentration of the silk protein, to allow a spider to spin its web with such apparent ease.
But replicating this complex process in the lab is proving far from easy.
It seems that nature's solution is not quite a simple as it first appears - and the days of being able to create vast amounts of this useful product may be some way off.
Dr Goodacre admits the team is at the beginning of a long road of research, but is still confident that tarantulas could hold the key to unravelling some of the secrets of spider silk.
She says: "If you are trying to predict what would be a good silk to make, rather than think of all of the alternatives you can make yourself, why not just look at what other spiders like tarantulas already do?
"Several million years of evolution is likely to have generated some pretty good solutions."
Road particles pose 'higher risk'
Children may be at greater risk from the microscopic particles in traffic pollution than was previously thought.
Early findings from a major study in London seen by the BBC show that the lung capacity of 8- and 9-year-olds is 5% lower than the national average.
And 7% of the children - surveyed in the Tower Hamlets area - have lung function reduced to a level internationally regarded as hazardous.
The London study is being led by Professor Jonathan Grigg.
He works out of the Centre for Paediatrics at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Leaf clues
The particles - so-called "particulates" - are produced in vehicle exhaust and are far smaller than the width of a human hair.
Less than 10 microns across, they are often referred to as PM10.
The results come as researchers at Lancaster University warn that levels of particulates are often higher than shown by official monitoring devices.
Analysing the particulates collected on roadside leaves, the research shows that the pollution can be most intense at the height of many children.
Britain already faces penalties from the European Union for multiple breaches of standards for particulate pollution.
Professor Grigg told BBC News: "Our findings in the East End of London are that children living here have slightly lower lung function than what we'd expect from the national average.
"Now, if that's due to air pollution, as we suspect, they're going to be at increased risk from a range of respiratory disorders such as asthma and infection, and may be at risk in adulthood."
Cough test
A total of 203 children at 10 different schools are taking part in regular tests over several years.
Interim findings from 149 children show that 11 of them have lung capacity that is 80% or lower than the national average - a threshold regarded by researchers as vulnerable to a range of breathing conditions.
One test involves encouraging the children to cough - so the carbon content of their sputum can be analysed.
Microscope analysis shows how particulates are reaching deep into the lungs.
These results will add pressure on the government over Britain's failure to meet European Union air quality standards.
The EU requirement is for average PM10 concentrations to stay below 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air - but most of the country's major conurbations record higher levels.
And the new research by Lancaster University shows that the particulate levels may be even worse than official figures show.
The official data is gathered at automatic monitoring stations which typically sample air at a height of three metres - mainly to avoid the risk of vandalism.
But Professor Barbara Maher and her team have devised a new technique for measuring the magnetic response of particulates on roadside leaves - many of the particles contain fragments of metal
And the readings show higher concentrations of particulates at lower levels.
'Progress made'
Interviewed beside a busy road in Lancaster, Professor Maher said: "We're surrounded by this invisible mist of these millions of toxic particles - you can't see them but we know, we've measured them, they're here.
"When we do our leaf magnetic measurements, our research shows that down at small child height the concentrations - the number - of these very fine particles is sometimes twice the current EU regulation standard."
One set of measurements, outside the Cathedral School in Lancaster, revealed particulate levels that were above the EU standard.
The school's head, Anne Goddard, said the findings were "quite worrying".
"It's the only playground we have at the school and it's right next to the road. The levels are high so obviously the effect on the children, especially those with asthma, is a concern."
The Environment Secretary Hilary Benn admits there is a problem but says 24 out of 27 members of the European Union are in breach of the standards and that most of the landmass of Britain does meet the requirements.
He also said that "huge progress" had been made in the last few decades with the Clean Air Act and changes in vehicles standards.
"But we need to do more and principally that will be about cars and lorries and buses," he said.
"And we've been working with other countries in Europe to improve the standards to get these PM10 particles down because we know it has an effect on our health."
Early findings from a major study in London seen by the BBC show that the lung capacity of 8- and 9-year-olds is 5% lower than the national average.
And 7% of the children - surveyed in the Tower Hamlets area - have lung function reduced to a level internationally regarded as hazardous.
The London study is being led by Professor Jonathan Grigg.
He works out of the Centre for Paediatrics at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Leaf clues
The particles - so-called "particulates" - are produced in vehicle exhaust and are far smaller than the width of a human hair.
Less than 10 microns across, they are often referred to as PM10.
The results come as researchers at Lancaster University warn that levels of particulates are often higher than shown by official monitoring devices.
Analysing the particulates collected on roadside leaves, the research shows that the pollution can be most intense at the height of many children.
Britain already faces penalties from the European Union for multiple breaches of standards for particulate pollution.
Professor Grigg told BBC News: "Our findings in the East End of London are that children living here have slightly lower lung function than what we'd expect from the national average.
"Now, if that's due to air pollution, as we suspect, they're going to be at increased risk from a range of respiratory disorders such as asthma and infection, and may be at risk in adulthood."
Cough test
A total of 203 children at 10 different schools are taking part in regular tests over several years.
Interim findings from 149 children show that 11 of them have lung capacity that is 80% or lower than the national average - a threshold regarded by researchers as vulnerable to a range of breathing conditions.
One test involves encouraging the children to cough - so the carbon content of their sputum can be analysed.
Microscope analysis shows how particulates are reaching deep into the lungs.
These results will add pressure on the government over Britain's failure to meet European Union air quality standards.
The EU requirement is for average PM10 concentrations to stay below 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air - but most of the country's major conurbations record higher levels.
And the new research by Lancaster University shows that the particulate levels may be even worse than official figures show.
The official data is gathered at automatic monitoring stations which typically sample air at a height of three metres - mainly to avoid the risk of vandalism.
But Professor Barbara Maher and her team have devised a new technique for measuring the magnetic response of particulates on roadside leaves - many of the particles contain fragments of metal
And the readings show higher concentrations of particulates at lower levels.
'Progress made'
Interviewed beside a busy road in Lancaster, Professor Maher said: "We're surrounded by this invisible mist of these millions of toxic particles - you can't see them but we know, we've measured them, they're here.
"When we do our leaf magnetic measurements, our research shows that down at small child height the concentrations - the number - of these very fine particles is sometimes twice the current EU regulation standard."
One set of measurements, outside the Cathedral School in Lancaster, revealed particulate levels that were above the EU standard.
The school's head, Anne Goddard, said the findings were "quite worrying".
"It's the only playground we have at the school and it's right next to the road. The levels are high so obviously the effect on the children, especially those with asthma, is a concern."
The Environment Secretary Hilary Benn admits there is a problem but says 24 out of 27 members of the European Union are in breach of the standards and that most of the landmass of Britain does meet the requirements.
He also said that "huge progress" had been made in the last few decades with the Clean Air Act and changes in vehicles standards.
"But we need to do more and principally that will be about cars and lorries and buses," he said.
"And we've been working with other countries in Europe to improve the standards to get these PM10 particles down because we know it has an effect on our health."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)