IS CHINESE WATER TORTURE EFFECTIVE?

Finding: PLAUSIBLEExplanation: The sound of a leaky faucet can drive some people crazy, but what about the sensation of those droplets dripping repetitively on your skin? MythBusters Kari Byron and Adam Savage suffered for science and underwent Chinese water torture to test its psychological power. The well-known torture tactic involves subjecting victims to a continuous stream of dripping water that strikes the same spot on their foreheads for a prolonged period of time.

The MythBusters racked and restrained Kari, then turned on a leaky faucet, while Adam endured the drip sitting upright and unrestrained. Throughout the process, both took psychological assessments to track their mental states.

After nearly two hours, Kari started to seriously crack and experienced claustrophobia and shoulder spasms. Adam sat through more than three hours of water torture, and while he wasn't as shaken as Kari, the procedure proved uncomfortable.

In fact, the preliminary torture trials rattled the MythBusters enough that they called the experiment quits early. Even in a safe environment, the myth of Chinese water torture was deemed too plausible to risk complete confirmation.

As seen in "MythBusters: Brown Note, Water Torture"

CAN THROWING A GLASS OF WATER ON A GREASE FIRE CREATE A HUGE FIREBALL?

Finding: BUSTEDExplanation: Ever hear of the saying "oil and water don't mix"? Smart cooks know that water isn't the secret ingredient for extinguishing a grease fire on the stove. On the contrary, oil catches fire at around 680 degrees Fahrenheit, and a splash of water in the pan can combine with it to create a terrifyingly tall burst of flames — probably not what you had in mind for a show before dinner.But rest assured, you'd need more than the water in your ordinary drinking glass to bring the myth of 30-foot kitchen pyrotechnics to life. MythBusters' Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage found that a mere 8 ounces of water sloshed on 2 quarts of burning oil only causes a 20-foot tall inferno, because the water vaporizes and expands almost instantaneously, carrying the flaming oil particles with it.To achieve 30-foot flames, they needed a 2:1 oil-to-water ratio: 2 quarts of oil and a full quart of water. And only then: Voila, fireball!

As seen in "MythBusters: Greased Lightning."

Epidemiologisthttp://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/epidemiologists.htm#tab-1

Epidemiologists investigate the causes of disease and other public health problems to prevent them from spreading or from happening again. They report their findings to public policy officials and to the general public.

DutiesEpidemiologists typically do the following:

Plan and direct studies of public health problems to find ways to prevent and to treat the problems

Collect and analyze data—including using observations, interviews, surveys, and samples of blood or other bodily fluids—to find the causes of diseases or other health problems

Communicate their findings to health practitioners, policymakers, and the public Manage public health programs by planning programs, monitoring progress, analyzing

data, and seeking ways to improve them, among other activities Supervise professional, technical, and clerical personnel

Epidemiologists collect and analyze data to investigate health issues. For example, an epidemiologist might collect and analyze demographic data to determine who is at the highest risk for a particular disease.

Research epidemiologists typically work for universities. Applied epidemiologists work with governments, addressing health crises directly. The most common problem both types of epidemiologists work on is infectious diseases, but they examine other public health issues, as well.

Epidemiologists who work in private industry commonly work for health insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies. Those in non-profit companies often do public advocacy work. According to a 2009 national survey by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, local government epidemiologists study one or more of the following public health areas:

Infectious diseases Bioterrorism/emergency response Maternal and child health Chronic diseases Environmental health Injury Occupational health Substance abuse Oral health

Work EnvironmentEpidemiologists held about 5,000 jobs in 2010. They work in health departments, offices, universities, laboratories, or in the field. They spend most of their time studying data and reports in a safe lab or office setting. Epidemiologists have minimal risk when they work in laboratories or in the field, because they take extensive precautions before interacting with samples or patients. 

In 2010, 54 percent of epidemiologists worked for federal, state, and local governments. Other epidemiologists worked for pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturers (5%); scientific research and development services (7%); college, universities, and professional schools (9%); and hospitals in the state, local, and private sectors (13%).

Work SchedulesMost epidemiologists work full time and have a routine work schedule. Fieldwork or public health emergencies occasionally may cause epidemiologists to work irregular hours.

How to Become an EpidemiologistEpidemiologists need at least a master’s degree from an accredited postsecondary institution. Most have a master’s degree in epidemiology or a related field. Some epidemiologists have a Ph.D.

EducationEpidemiologists need at least a master’s degree from an accredited postsecondary institution. Most have a master’s degree in public health, with an emphasis in epidemiology or a related field. Advanced epidemiologists—including those in colleges and universities—have a Ph.D. in their chosen field.Coursework in epidemiology includes public health, biology, and biostatistics. Classes emphasize statistical methods, causal analysis, and survey design. Advanced courses emphasize multiple regression, medical informatics, review of previous biomedical research, and practical applications of data.

A number of epidemiologists have a professional background (for example, a medical degree) with a dual degree in epidemiology. In medical school, students spend most of the first 2 years in laboratories and classrooms, taking courses such as anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, microbiology, pathology, medical ethics, and laws governing medicine. They also learn to take medical histories, examine patients, and diagnose illnesses.

Important QualitiesCommunication skills. Epidemiologists must use their expertise and experience to determine how they can disseminate their findings to the public properly.Critical-thinking skills. Epidemiologists analyze their findings to determine how best to respond to a public health problem or a more grave health-related emergency.

Detail oriented. Epidemiologists must be precise and accurate in moving from observation and interview to conclusions.

Math and statistical skills. Epidemiologists work with both qualitative methods (observations and interviews) and quantitative methods (surveys and analysis of biological data) in their work.

Speaking skills. Epidemiologists must communicate complex findings so that public policy officials and the public can understand the magnitude of a health problem.

Writing skills. Written communication is critical for helping decision makers and the public understand the conclusions and recommendations that epidemiologists make.

PayThe median annual wage of epidemiologists was $63,010 in May 2010. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $42,360, and the top 10 percent earned more than $98,380.

Most epidemiologists work full time and have a routine work schedule. Fieldwork or public health emergencies occasionally may cause epidemiologists to work irregular hours.

Job OutlookEmployment of epidemiologists is expected to increase by 24 percent from 2010 to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations. Ongoing public health awareness, as well as an increased reliance on medical records for public health analysis, will maintain demand for epidemiologists. New legislation that will improve medical record-keeping is expected to create more opportunities for epidemiologists to track infection and demographic data.

Employment growth over the next 10 years for epidemiologists is expected to be strong in state and local governments. Governments have increased their demand for epidemiologists because the analyses that epidemiologists do are important to preventive healthcare, as well as to emergency responses.

Job ProspectsEpidemiologists generally should have favorable opportunities. Many states report shortages of qualified workers for applied epidemiology positions.

Contacts for More InformationFor more information about epidemiologists, including schools offering education in epidemiology, visitCouncil of State and Territorial EpidemiologistsFor more information about epidemiology careers in the federal government, visitCenters for Disease Control and Prevention

DNA Sequencing Helps Identify Cancer Cells for Immune System AttackFeb. 8, 2012 — DNA sequences from tumor cells can be used to direct the immune system to attack cancer, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research, in mice, appears online Feb. 8 in Nature.

The immune system relies on an intricate network of alarm bells, targets and safety brakes to determine when and what to attack. The new results suggest that scientists may now be able to combine DNA sequencing data with their knowledge of the triggers and targets that set off immune alarms to more precisely develop vaccines and other immunotherapies for cancer."We already have ways to identify specific targets for immunotherapy, but they are technically challenging, extremely labor-intensive and often take more than a year to complete," says senior author Robert Schreiber, PhD, the Alumni Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine and co-leader of the tumor immunology program at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. "These difficulties have stood in the way of developing personalized immunotherapies for cancer patients, who often require immediate care for their disease. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to show that the faster methods provided by DNA sequencing can help. That opens up all kinds of exciting possibilities."

Scientists have long maintained that the immune system can recognize cancer as a threat either on its own or with the help of vaccines or other immunotherapeutic treatments, which help alert the immune system to the danger posed by cancers. Once the cancer is recognized, the immune system should develop the capacity to attack growing cancer cells until either the tumor is eradicated or the immune system's resources are exhausted.

Schreiber and his colleagues have shown that interactions between the immune system and cancer are more complex. Their theory, called cancer immunoediting, suggests that some of the mutations in tumor cells are very easy for the immune system to recognize as a threat. If the immune system detects these mutations in cancer cells, it attacks until they are destroyed.At that point, the cancer may be eliminated. But it's also possible that the cancer can be "edited" by the immune system, resulting in the removal of all the cells containing the critical easily recognized mutations. The remaining tumor cells can continue to grow or enter into a period of dormancy where they are not destroyed but are held in check by the immune system.For the new study, Schreiber and his colleagues wanted to define the genetics of tumors that had yet to interact with the immune system. To do so, they induced tumors in mice with disabled immune systems. They collaborated with Washington University's Genome Institute scientists, who sequenced the cancer cells' genes.

"Until very recently, this work would have been impractical because of the costs involved," Schreiber says. "But the technology has improved and prices have come down, and now it's possible to obtain this genetic information for a few thousand dollars instead of a million."By comparing genetic data from cancer cells and normal cells, scientists identified 3,743 mutations in the genes of the tumor cells. Next, they turned to an online database of protein sequences likely to be recognized by a key immune system sensor. This helped them narrow their focus to a few mutated genes whose altered proteins seemed most likely to trigger immune system attacks. One of these mutated proteins, an altered form of spectrin-beta2, was present in all tumor cells that were attacked by the immune system and in none of the cells that were ignored.

Researchers cloned this mutant gene and put it into other mouse tumor cells that lacked the mutation. When transplanted into mice with normal immunity, the tumor cells that made the mutant spectrin-beta 2 protein were attacked and eliminated by immune cells."Many of the cancer genome projects now under way are looking for the 'driver' mutations, or the mutations that cause the cancers," Schreiber says. "Our results suggest there may be additional information in the sequencing data that can help us make the immune system attack cancers."Schreiber calls the spectrin-beta2 mutation identified in the study "low-hanging fruit," noting that it's such a red flag to the immune system that its presence normally leads the immune system to assault cancer cells without any prompting from immunotherapy.He and his colleagues are currently sequencing DNA in tumors grown from mice with normal immune systems to see if they can identify mutations that are not as readily discernible to the immune system."The idea would be to make a vaccine that helps the immune system recognize and attack six or seven of these mutated proteins in a cancer," he says. "Therapeutically, that could be very helpful."

Story Source:The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis, via Newswise. The original article was written by Michael C. Purdy. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

1. Hirokazu Matsushita, Matthew D. Vesely, Daniel C. Koboldt, Charles G. Rickert, Ravindra Uppaluri, Vincent J. Magrini, Cora D. Arthur, J. Michael White, Yee-Shiuan Chen, Lauren K. Shea, Jasreet Hundal, Michael C. Wendl, Ryan Demeter, Todd Wylie, James P. Allison, Mark J. Smyth, Lloyd J. Old, Elaine R. Mardis, Robert D. Schreiber. Cancer exome analysis reveals a T-cell-dependent mechanism of cancer immunoediting. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10755

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120208152342.htm

First Satellite Tag Study for Manta Rays Reveals Habits and Hidden Journeys of Ocean GiantsMay 11, 2012 — Using the latest satellite tracking technology, conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter (UK), and the Government of Mexico have completed a ground-breaking study on a mysterious ocean giant: the manta ray.

The research team has produced the first published study on the use of satellite telemetry to track the open-ocean journeys of the world's largest ray, which can grow up to 25 feet in width. Researchers say the manta ray -- listed as "Vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) -- has become increasingly threatened by fishing and accidental capture and now needs more protection.

The study was published May 11 in the online journal PLoS ONE. The authors include: Rachel T. Graham of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Exeter; Matthew J. Witt of the University of Exeter; Dan W. Castellanos of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Francisco Remolina of the National Commission of Protected Areas, Cancun, Mexico; Sara Maxwell of the Marine Conservation Institute and the University of California-Santa Cruz; Brenden J. Godley of the University of Exeter; and Lucy A. Hawkes of Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom."Almost nothing is known about the movements and ecological needs of the manta ray, one of the ocean's largest and least-known species," said Dr. Rachel Graham, lead author on the study and director of WCS's Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program. "Our real-time data illuminate the previously unseen world of this mythic fish and will help to shape management and conservation strategies for this species."

The research team attached satellite transmitters to manta rays off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula over a 13-day period. The tracking devices were attached to the backs of six individuals -- four females, one male, and one juvenile."The satellite tag data revealed that some of the rays traveled more than 1,100 kilometers during the study period," said Dr. Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute. "The rays spent most of their time traversing coastal areas plentiful in zooplankton and fish eggs from spawning events."Like baleen whales and whale sharks, manta rays are filter feeders that swim through clouds of plankton with mouths agape.The research team also found that the manta rays spent nearly all their time within Mexico's territorial waters (within 200 miles of the coastline), but only 11.5 percent of the locations gathered from the tagged rays occurred within marine protected areas. And the majority of ray

locations were recorded in major shipping routes in the region; manta rays could be vulnerable to ship strikes.

"Studies such as this one are critical in developing effective management of manta rays, which appear to be declining worldwide," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of WCS's Ocean Giant Program.

In spite of its malevolent, bat-like appearance, the manta ray -- sometimes referred to as the "devilfish" -- is harmless to humans and lacks the stinger of the better-known stingray. The manta ray possesses the highest brain to body ratio of all sharks and rays and gives birth to live young, usually one or two "pups" every one or two years. Manta rays are apparently declining in the Caribbean and in other tropical regions of the world's oceans, in part because they are captured for shark bait and a demand for gill rakers (small, finger-like structures that filter out the ray's minute zooplankton prey) in the traditional Chinese medicinal trade.

Story Source:The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wildlife Conservation Society.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:Rachel T. Graham, Matthew J. Witt, Dan W. Castellanos, Francisco Remolina, Sara Maxwell, Brendan J. Godley, Lucy A. Hawkes. Satellite Tracking of Manta Rays Highlights Challenges to Their Conservation. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (5): e36834 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036834

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120511122228.htm

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and the Government of Mexico have published the first-ever satellite telemetry study on the manta ray, the world’s largest ray species. The findings will help inform ecosystem-based management plans for the rays, which are in decline worldwide due to fishing and accidental capture. (Credit: Photo credit: Kaile Tsapis)

Boiling Water Without Bubbles: Researchers Engineer Special Surface, Allowing Water to Boil Without Producing BubblesScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2012) — Every cook knows that boiling water bubbles, right? New research from Northwestern University turns that notion on its head.

"We manipulated what has been known for a long, long time by using the right kind of texture and chemistry to prevent bubbling during boiling," said Neelesh A. Patankar, professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-author of the study.This discovery could help reduce damage to surfaces, prevent bubbling explosions and may someday be used to enhance heat transfer equipment, reduce drag on ships and lead to anti-frost technologies.

Published Sept. 13 in the journal Nature, the research outlines how a specially engineered coated surface can create a stable vapor cushion between the surface and a hot liquid and eliminate the bubbles that are created during boiling.This phenomenon is based on the Leidenfrost effect. In 1756 the German scientist Johann Leidenfrost observed that water drops skittered on a sufficiently hot skillet, bouncing across the surface of the skillet on a vapor cushion or film of steam. The vapor film collapses as the surface falls below the Leidenfrost temperature. When the water droplet hits the surface of the skillet, at 100 degrees Celsius, boiling temperature, it bubbles.

To stabilize a Leidenfrost vapor film and prevent bubbling during boiling, Patankar collaborated with Ivan U. Vakarelski of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. Vakarelski led the experiments and Patankar provided the theory. The collaboration also included Derek Chan, professor of mathematics and statistics from the University of Melbourne in Australia.In their experiments, the stabilization of the Leidenfrost vapor film was achieved by making the surface of tiny steel spheres very water-repellant. The spheres were sprayed with a commercially

available hydrophobic coating -- essentially self-assembled nanoparticles -- combined with other water-hating chemicals to achieve the right amount of roughness and water repellency. At the correct length scale this coating created a surface texture full of tiny peaks and valleys.When the steel spheres were heated to 400 degrees Celsius and dropped into room temperature water, water vapors formed in the valleys of the textured surface, creating a stable Leidenfrost vapor film that did not collapse once the spheres cooled to the temperature of boiling water. In the experiments, researchers completely avoided the bubbly phase of boiling.To contrast, the team also coated tiny steel spheres with a water-loving coating, heated the objects to 700 degrees Celsius, dropped them into room temperature water and observed that the Leidenfrost vapor collapsed with a vigorous release of bubbles."This is a dramatic result and there are many applications in which a vapor-loving, water-hating surface is beneficial," Patankar said.

Story Source:The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University. The original article was written by Erin White.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:1. Ivan U. Vakarelski, Neelesh A. Patankar, Jeremy O. Marston, Derek Y. C. Chan, Sigurdur T.

Thoroddsen. Stabilization of Leidenfrost vapour layer by textured superhydrophobic surfaces. Nature, 2012; 489 (7415): 274 DOI: 10.1038/nature11418

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120913132917.htm

Screenshot from a movie showing the cooling of 20 mm hydrophilic (left) and superhydrophobic (right) steel spheres in 100 C water. The spheres' initial temperature is about 380 C. The bubbling phase of boiling is completely eliminated for steel spheres with superhydrophobic coating. (Credit: Image courtesy of Northwestern University)

Virgin Births May Be Common in the WildBy: Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor

9/11/2012 - Wild female pit vipers can reproduce without a male, suggesting virgin births may take place in nature far more than before thought. Asexual reproduction is common among invertebrates — that is, animals without backbones. It occurs rarely in vertebrates, but examples of it are increasingly being discovered. For instance, the Komodo dragon, the world's largest living lizard, has given birth via parthenogenesis, in which an unfertilized egg develops to maturity. Such virgin births have also been seen in sharks at least twice; in birds such as chickens and turkeys; and in snakes such as pit vipers and boa constrictors.

Although virgin birth has been observed in vertebrates in captivity, scientists had not yet seen it happen in the wild. This raised the possibility that such asexual reproduction might just be a rare curiosity outside the mainstream of vertebrate evolution. "Until this discovery, facultative parthenogenesis — asexual reproduction by a normally sexual species — has been considered a captive syndrome," said researcher Warren Booth, a molecular ecologist at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. Now, genetic analysis reveals examples of virgin birth in two closely related species of pit viper snakes — the copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) and cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus).

Mama's offspringThe researchers collected genetic samples from long-term studies of the snakes — copperheads from Connecticut and cottonmouths from Georgia. They gathered specimens from 22 litters of copperheads and 37 litters of cottonmouths, both the mothers and their offspring. DNA analysis confirmed that in one litter from each species, the offspring were solely the product of the mother, with no genetic contributions from a father.

The researchers were able to analyze the large amount of data due to collaborations with Charles Smith and Pam Eskridge of the Copperhead Institute and Wofford College, S.C., and Shannon Hoss, a graduate student at San Diego State University. "We just sat there stunned at the discovery," Booth told LiveScience. "This is something that we always believed existed, but in order to investigate it, it would take a massive amount of work in the field. … To detect it in both species in our first attempt was astounding."

"I think the frequency is what really shocked us," Booth added. "In the copperhead population, we detected one instance in 22 litters, whereas in the cottonmouths, it was one in 37 litters. Essentially, somewhere between 2.5 and 5 percent of litters produced in these populations may be resulting from parthenogenesis. That's quite remarkable for something that has been considered an evolutionary novelty, even by me up until this finding."

Pit vipers and many other creatures carry out meiosis, in which cells divide to form sex cells, each of which only possess half the material needed to make offspring. In the female pit vipers, pairs of their sex cells likely fused to generate embryos. The results were progeny that included only the mother's genetic material. However, these offspring weren't clones of the mother since

they were not made using identical halves of her genome.

What limits virgin births?How prevalent, then, is virgin birth? And could it possibly extend to humans? "In terms of other species, it is evident now that reptiles are a group that appear predisposed to parthenogenesis, whether facultative, as we address here, or obligate, where the primary reproductive mode is parthenogenesis and few or no males are known within the species," Booth said. Obligate parthenogenesis may have arisen from ancestral interbreeding between species, though scientists aren't sure why some animals seem to randomly give birth without help from the male (the facultative type).

"What is common to those that reproduce facultatively is the lack of genomic imprinting — by that, I mean a process in which a specific set of genes are provided by the mother, and a second set from the father," Booth said. "These genes of different parental origin must interact in a process called genomic imprinting in order for the development of an embryo. This, as far as we are aware, occurs in all mammals with the exception of the monotremes — platypus and echidnas — and therefore explains why we cannot have facultative parthenogenesis in mammalian species without significant intervention by scientists.

Originally, Booth and his colleagues thought such virgin births might happen if potential mates were not present, but over the years, they have seen six captive female boa constrictors give birth via parthenogenesis even when males were around during their breeding cycles. The number of times virgin births have occurred with different females also seem to rule out a freak accident causing it to occur, Booth and colleagues said. They are now investigating other possible causes for these virgin births — "these include genetics, viruses, tumors and bacteria," Booth said.

In the future, the researchers also hope to investigate other species for virgin births, such as water snakes in Oklahoma. In addition, they plan to see how well the offspring of virgin births survive and reproduce. It may be that virgin mothers can establish whole area populations of snakes by themselves. "We will know if this is possible in the next two to three years," Booth said.

The scientists detail their findings online Sept. 12 in the journal Biology Letters.

http://www.livescience.com/23103-virgin-births-common-wild-snakes.html

A female copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix) and her offspring born via parthenogenesis, also called virgin birth, described in a study reported Sept. 12, 2012 in the journal Biology Letters.CREDIT: © Charles Smith & Pam Eskridge

A new approach to cancer therapy uses antibodies that have been specially made to recognize specific cancers. When coupled with natural toxins,

drugs, or radioactive substances, the antibodies seek out their target cancer cells and deliver their lethal load. Alternatively, toxins can be linked to a

lymphokine and routed to cells equipped with receptors for the lymphokine. http://www.web-books.com/eLibrary/ON/B0/B8/33MB8.html

Photo Gallery: Spiders

http://www.livescience.com/21786-spider-diversity-gallery.html

Trapdoor SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A trapdoor spider, Liphistius dangrek. These spiders spend most of their time in underground burrows, emerging mainly to grab prey. Their rear half is segmented, a trait visible in some of the earliest spider fossils.

Western Black WidowCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A western black widow, Latrodectus Hesperus. One of the few species harmful to people in North America, a black widow often features a red hourglass shape on its underside.

Brown RecluseCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A brown recluse, Loxosceles reclusa. This spider is identified by a dark, violin-shaped mark on its head. Its venom can cause a deep wound in humans that takes weeks or even months to heal and can produce symptoms such as nausea and a fever.

Gooty Sapphire Ornamental SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A gooty sapphire ornamental spider, Poecilotheria metallica, shown from above.

Golden Orb-Web SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A golden orb-web spider, Nephila pilipes. Found throughout parts of Asia, this large spider has yellow on its abdomen and spins a golden web.

Orb Weaver SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

An orb weaver Argiope sp. Members of this genus are found all around the world and spin large webs that often contain striking designs. Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White, who consulted with an American Museum of Natural History curator while writing the classic children’s book, named the main character Charlotte A. Cavatica after a common orb weaver, Araneus cavaticus.

Funnel-Web Wolf SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A funnel-web wolf spider, Sosippus californicus. This spider spins a sheet-like web attached to a narrow tube, or funnel. Sitting at the mouth of the tube, the spider waits to strike after feeling vibrations of prey crossing the web.

Southern House SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

A southern house spider, Kukulcania hibernalis. The large charcoal-colored females make flat, tangled webs in dark corners and under overhangs and shutters to catch insects.

Goblin Spider ClawCredit: © AMNH\N. Duperre

Nadine Dupérré, a scientific assistant in the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology, uses a scanning electron microscope to view goblin spiders in minute detail. This detailed study allowed Museum Curator Emeritus Norman Platnick and Dupérré to define two new genera, or groups, of spiders: Niarchos and Scaphios.

Indian Ornamental SpiderCredit: © AMNH\R. Mickens

An Indian ornamental tarantuala, Poecilotheria regalis.

http://hawaii.gov/health/healthy-lifestyles/std-aids/data-statistics/2010.pdf