{"id":63592,"date":"2015-11-02T09:21:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T09:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=fac1c0392c6ee7b3658bfd41fd24cc63"},"modified":"2015-11-02T09:21:02","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T09:21:02","slug":"press-release-spooky-spider-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=63592","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Spooky spider science"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Spiders spin their webs around a purpose-built frame, the frames are then placed into a container and an aerosol containing infectious micro-organisms, such as Ebola virus or the Plague bacterium, is sprayed across the frame. <\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dhg5UnMSM1c\">Spooky spider science<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The micro-threads are so fine they do not absorb any of the biological material, so show how the microorganisms may survive or persist naturally in the environment. <\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Defence Science and Technology Laboratory\">Dstl<\/abbr> scientists can then change the conditions in the container \u2013 temperature, humidity, or light for example \u2013 to mimic how such conditions affect the persistence and survival of infectious aerosols in the outside environment.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Defence Science and Technology Laboratory\">Dstl<\/abbr>\u2019s Dr Steve Lever says the work is helping provide the necessary evidence to prepare for a potential threat: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">By increasing our basic understanding of the survival characteristics of threat agents, we can help determine the best response to any biological release \u2013 whether accidental or intentional.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Using spiders\u2019 webs isn\u2019t a new method \u2013 this technique has been used by defence scientists since the 1960s \u2013 but <abbr title=\"Defence Science and Technology Laboratory\">Dstl<\/abbr> has created the special frames to draw on its potential, along with the use of a suite of other analytical tools, such as computer modelling and containment drums.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_1970\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>\n<abbr title=\"Defence Science and Technology Laboratory\">Dstl<\/abbr> Media Enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:press@dstl.gov.uk\">press@dstl.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Media enquiries<\/span><br \/>\n              01980 658666\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out of hours<\/span><br \/>\n              07901 892660\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spiders\u2019 webs are being used at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to study how biological materials could survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}