Questions and Answers with the Skeptical Spider 1

THE SKEPTICAL SPIDER
(brought to you by Relax. I'm an arachnologist.)

Questions and Answers 

with the Skeptical Spider

-INTRODUCTION-

Why be Skeptical?

     Welcome to the premiere of the 2013-2014 essay series of the Skeptical Entomologist. As the first full series of essays (the previous four-essay collection that ran from April to June 2012 was a mere preview), the Skeptical Entomologist will dive deep into the intellectual detritus to pull up some real nuggets of wisdom. As the Bug Dude does, indeed, have more varied interests than just his love of invertebrates (even though one may more aptly call that love "obsession"), the topics of the return Skeptical Entomologist essay series will be more varied, although it will relate everything covered to the science of invertebrates. To kick off the series, and to celebrate the grandeur of the scope which the series, R. Troy Peterson will be answering some questions submitted to the Bug Dude Facebook page. There were no guidelines other than

(1) The questions had to be concise and well thought out;

(2) The questions had to be serious inquiries;

(3) The questions had to be suitable for a family audience. 

     Albert Einstein once said

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead --- his eyes are closed.[1]

     So, to, can the beauty be missed by focusing too tightly on simply one discipline. As noble, interesting, entertaining, and educational as the study of insects and arachnids may be, they are far from the only discipline in the catalogs of science. All around us and them is a massively impressive cosmos that can inspire us. The Bug Dude is no stranger to this emotion; the wonders of the distant cosmos can cause the mouth to gape, and seeing our own blue world in the skies of Mars can bring a tear to the eye. 
     But even though there is much in science to be awed at and to learn from, there are also ideas that take up the mask of science (so to speak), not for the betterment of humanity or for the love of discovery and exploration, but for deceit. For selfishness, greed, to fulfill that minute and mischievous corner of the human mind. These are the frauds, those who deal wolf tickets and snake oil, those who take advantage of the spoils of scientific literacy while they mock and deny the very principles, people, evidence, and system of inquiry which has allowed such spoils to be achieved. These are the pseudoscientists.
     The way around such pseudoscientific thinking is not through violence or verbal assaults - the way to promote true scientific skepticism and literacy is by promoting it. That's it. Show the world how wonderful and amazing the universe is without sinking to the level of those who twist the true face of the universe into a mask they use to pry the coins from the pockets of others. It was for this reason the Skeptical Entomologist exists; to spread one man's love of not only insects and arachnids, but of the universe and science as well. To spread ideas worth sharing, to try to bring the world together to discuss things which should be discussed. Because we are human beings; the bipedal ape Homo sapien sapien, which experiences on this earth are - at the very best - finite and ephemeral in the grandeur of the universe. It should be spent in joyful, intellectual discussions and peace, not in deceitful words and violence. 

The Importance of Skepticism

     

Skepticism - a questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts. [2]

     There are some incredibly good reasons as to why a skeptical outlook on life is important. While the term "skeptic" has become somewhat tarnished in recent years (thanks to the associate people seem to make between skepticism and cynicism), there is really nothing wrong with skepticism. Rather, it is the real basis of science, the driving tool behind it. Science is, after all, really nothing more than the set of intellectual tools we use to better direct that most basic of human traits - curiosity. Every human is a natural scientist; to a young child, the world is entirely unknown to him. What does this do? Why does this hurt? Why is this salty or that sweet? Where does this come from? What IS this? Also, much like a toddler, unbridled curiosity tends to pull toward whatever is appealing at the moment. Curiosity is a great thing, but it needs to be applied in a systematic, organized way so that what is learned can be cataloged and remembered, not just by that generation, but by generations after. Skepticism is an essential part of curiosity; one could say that is is a refined curiosity. To the curious, any answer will do, and then it's on to the next thing. To the skeptical, each answer must be weighed by the available evidence, and although some concepts (such as the theories of evolution, microorganisms, or plate tectonics) may be what could be confidently called a fact, a skeptic understands that knowledge isn't written in stone. Things may change, and even though some things (once again, evolution, germ theory, plate tectonics) are undeniably fact, there is a chance (albeit minuscule) that, in a rare fossil find, they may be turned on their heads. 

     Perhaps that is the reason why so many people are seemingly turned off by skeptical thinking these days. It's not very reassuring to think that something you hold to be true, however close, could one day be proven wrong. It's never an easy thing to change one's worldview. But a skeptical person knows that being skeptical is not so black and white. It is, at it's very core, a way to become more educated about the cosmos in which we live. It can open our eyes to the very beauty which we try to attain through other means. It can also provide us with immediate benefits in our every day lives - scams avoided, arguments prevented. Being skeptical may certainly prevent one form blundering into a situation like a fool. As the great Carl Sagan once put it,

Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, which comes ambling along.[3]

     Perhaps nobody could say it better than Carl Sagan, whose books and television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage inspired generations.  

...And Here's the Point 

     As Relax. I'm an arachnologist. is primarily an arachnology community, the subjects covered will all be related back to and compared with the science of invertebrates, particularly insects and arachnids. Some of these will be more apparent than others - say an example is given of human social interactions; the obvious invertebrate comparison to this would be to bees, wasps, ants, and termites, all insects which often have large, bustling communities. Others, such as the need to be ethical or more pseudoscientific concepts, may be more difficult to ascertain the ways in which they may be related to the science of invertebrates. Because of their diversity, such animals naturally lend themselves to metaphor and comparisons. Society, particularly in the United States, has long called murderous women with a tendency to kill their husbands "black widows", after the genus Latrodectus, of which the females are purported to eat their male counterparts after copulation. 

     The point of this essay series is to demonstrate how diverse scientific disciplines are different, and yet how they are alike. To show the reader how skepticism is as useful when determining whether a spider is dangerous as well as when determining if a claim heard on the street is true. Over the course of this series you will encounter a variety of seemingly unrelated topics, from determining the truth of pseudoscientific claims such as crytpozoology and UFO visitation to economics and ethics, and much more. And so here we stand, at the precipice of the first full run of the Skeptical Spider essay series, ready to dive into the world of science and skepticism. The Skeptical Spider relates everything back to the study of insects and arachnids because, at heart, that is what interests him. His love for these animals is obsessive and active, always looking to learn, to teach, to share. As the late Steve Irwin once said, 

I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.

     And if R. Troy Peterson is passionate about anything, it's about terrestrial invertebrates. 

-QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH THE SKEPTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST-

     To get things started, we'll take a question from the Bug Dude Facebook page. 

QUESTION - Would you consider doing care sheets? For species available in the herp hobby? I always enjoy reading care sheets from different people to see what they choose to do and try. Also nice to compare my own experience with inverts. 

ANSWER - I've done something similar to care sheets in the past, although it wasn't about animals available as pets per se. When I started the Bug Dude, I had a little gimmick I called the "Terrestrial Invertebrate of the Day". In this little bit, I'd Google images of random invertebrates and choose one. I'd then research the animal and post the image along with the basic information, such as habitat, distribution, length, diet, and one interesting fact. While individual fact was varied, it often wasn't very detailed, and the images were almost never credited. 

     After a while, mostly due to demands form school, the "Terrestrial Invertebrate of the Day" just stopped. It wasn't didn't peter out; it just stopped popping up on the page. I rather liked doing the research, as it helped me learn myself each time I did it. Perhaps the biggest issue was that it was supposed to be uploaded every day, which at times became almost impossible to do in addition to my normal work load. Another factor that led to the demise of the segment - I read an article by Alex Wild in which he talks about how I Fucking Love Science didn't credit the photographers. As I had not been crediting the photographers for the segment (often they weren't given), this article made me feel rather guilty. That played a part in the end of the segment as well. 

     I have been considering doing something similar, but more in line with what the Bug Dude has become. As I want to not limit the page to mere insects and spiders, but other terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, the segment would be much more varied - mollusks, echinoderms, arthropods, all of those may be fair game to appear. I'll also be making them more detailed, including, when applicable, how they should be maintained in captivity. 

========================================================================

QUESTION - Care to comment on this? Think it's bug related?

ANSWER - This is an interesting topic, and even more interesting that I was asked this because - as luck would have it - I'm going to discuss this at length in a later essay this year (sorry, no spoilers). It would certainly appear to be, at first glance, bug related - or, perhaps, more accurately, I would peg it as spider related, as it would seem to be more likely that such intricate silk work would originate from an organism we already know uses silk in intricate ways. Assuming, or course, it is not a hoax (I have no reason to suspect it would be presently).

     Science stories like this are excellent reminders that, even despite our mastery of the planet (or supposed mastery, perhaps), there are still things that we do not understand in our figurative backyard. Such discoveries baffle our brains and provide us with a chance to test our skeptical and scientific abilities, as well as our determinism to find the truth. We all have our own ideas about this bizarre fence-like web, but until it it conclusively attributed to an organism, we can never be completely sure of its origin. 

========================================================================

QUESTION - Besides daddy long legs, what is the best spider to have in your house, and more or less crawling on your in general? 

ANSWER - This is a question that could be answered in two ways. The first part is relatively simple to answer. Every spider in your house could be potentially beneficial to have around. Perhaps the most beneficial spider species would be jumping spiders. These spiders are usually small, generally un-spiderlike in appearance, and fun to observe. As they are active hunters, they won't produce webs, which (as it turns out) many people find aesthetically unpleasant. In the Pacific Northwest, a common spider is Tegenaria agrestis, the hobo spider; this spider, despite it's reputation, is harmless and hunts on the ground. Other genera, such as intimidating Lycosidae, the medically significant Latrodectus spiders and Loxosceles reclusa, and (even though they're not spiders) individuals of the order Solifugae and Scorpiones, can be picked up and moved outside to locales where human interaction is not likely to occur. 

     As for what is best to have crawl on you, that is a more difficult question to answer. There are some spiders, such as the American grass spider, the house spiders (T. agrestis and T. domestica), and essentially any other spider you find, which are not considered to be medically significant. These are safe for essentially anybody to handle, provided care it taken during the process. Larger spiders found in the pet trade, most notably new- and old-world tarantulas, could be said to be more appropriate for larger children, teens, and adults, since they're larger size means (naturally) larger fangs. Although some species can cause medically significant effects (for example, the bite of the king baboon spider, Pelinobius muticus, has been known to cause hallucinations and an itch that lasted for days.[4]), the primary cause for concern is the size of the fangs - on such large spiders, a better way to look at a bite medically is in the form of a minor stab wound. A rose hair tarantula, Grammostola rosea, has very week venom; as such, in case of a bite, most of the attention would be directed to the site of the bite and potential risk of infection. 

     Handling more dangerous spiders is even more dependent on the person. A Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow (I should mention, of course, that I own one; it is in a well enclosed cage on my nightstand), can inflict a bite that varies - a healthy human adult may feel some severe discomfort and have to take pain medication (some people have been known to self medicate black widow bites by taking hot baths to relax the muscles; this is because the antivenin is used as a last resort, and only the pain is largely treated), but a young child may be fighting for his life. Medical science has made even the bite of the infamous Sydney funnel web spider less than fatal. The question is - even with the knowledge you will not likely be killed, would you still want to hold one?

     This question is also hinged on the experience of the handler, their level of nervousness, and a variety of factors that neither the handler nor the spider can control. I am not overly comfortable about holding black widows, but it's something I can do if I have my wits about me. I'd be even more hesitant about holding a funnel web form down under, but if I had the antivenin on hand, I suppose I'd give it a go. However, if you wish to get people more accustomed to spiders, I suggest the handling of jumping spiders, aggressive and domestic house spiders, and grass spiders. These are all harmless, and although at times they can be fast and intimidating, are not only useful for teaching a love of spiders, they make great pets for children. 

========================================================================

-CONCLUSION-

This concludes the first essay of the Skeptical Spider. Due to outside influences, the first essay was not as long as originally plan. Nevertheless, it is the author's hope that it was entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking. Questions can always be submitted to the Facebook page, and questions may be included as bonus content on upcoming essays. 

        

  

[1] R. H. Popkin, The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes (rev. ed. 1968); C. L. Stough, Greek Skepticism (1969); M. Burnyeat, ed., The Skeptical Tradition (1983); B. Stroud, The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism (1984). Encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com
[2]http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/a-day-to-remember-carl-sagan/
[3] Klátil, L., Sklípkani, Zlín 1998, p. 37 and 40