What happens to spiders along the river when there’s a flood? It’s probably something you’ve never thought about…unless you’re a spider hater, then it would be your dream come true to learn that they’re all wiped out. Except…that’s not the case. Susquehanna University Professor Matt Persons and his students decided to look at that question in the midst of another study and they’re making some really interesting findings. They’ve dunked about 1,700 spiders and for about 3 and a half hours and determined that while some die within minutes…others appear to be dead but resuscitate about 8 hours later, and finally, there are some that handle it no problem. Persons and his crew were also out recently in Centralia collecting spiders for a study on how Mercury moves through the food chain. They’re finding that bigger spiders eat smaller ones and the mercury gets more concentrated as they cannibalize. They’ve also discovered that the mercury load in spiders they’ve collected here in Centralia is nine times higher than normal.
Floating has been around since the 50’s in places like California and Colorado but only came to the Central Susquehanna Valley three years ago. The Art of Floating has five tanks and each one has ten inches of water along with about one thousand pounds of salt, allowing you to float on the surface. With the door to the tank closed and motion sensitive lights that eventually leave you in the dark, it becomes a sensory deprivation experience. I only spent about 20 minutes in the tank but they recommend about an hour for your first experience. Second-timers tend to up the ante by going for 90 minutes and up, with some even spending the night. You can see more on spiders and floating in our next episode of In Your Neighborhood, Wednesday night at 6:30 and 9:30, right here on SECV8, exclusively on Service Electric Cablevision.
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