 "Photo: Andrea Lai")
Students took a break from tests and papers Wednesday to relax, munch on cookies and chat about the real-life science behind movie scenes in a Science Study Break organized by the University of Texas Libraries.
About 60 people, most of them University students, packed into a room in the Life Science Library to hear Ruth Buskirk, a lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Natural Sciences, examine scenes from the "Spiderman" series.
A scene showing Spiderman swinging between skyscrapers on a string of web segued into a discussion about how a spider produces a web and its strength.
"The silk is produced in a semi-liquid mess," Buskirk said. "When the spider draws it out using spinnerets, it solidifies."
The silk, which is similar to the silk produced by a silk worm, is incredibly strong for its small size, Buskirk said.
"It is the strongest known natural fiber for its diameter - stronger than steel or nylon," she said.
"The Science of Spiderman" was the sixth program in the lecture series. The first Study Break was organized in September of 2006. A professor who testified in a real-life murder trial examined the way the crime series "CSI" used genetics in a fictional case. Previous programs looked at the science behind television programs "House M.D.," "24" and various Keanu Reeves movies.
"Tonight had a crazy turnout," said Roxanne Bogucka, one of the librarians who organized the program. "The room is usually packed, but people are usually not sitting on the floors or standing on top of each other," Bogucka said of the larger-than-average attendance.
The idea to do a program on Spiderman first came to Bogucka about a year ago. While driving to work one morning, Bogucka heard a story about a tarantula that would shoot webbing out of its feet.
Bogucka recounted the story as a way to enlighten the audience on the various library resources at their disposal.
By using library resources, she found a transcript of the radio program, where she learned the spider mentioned was a zebra tarantula. From there, she looked up the spider on LexisNexis - a database that searches through news, business and legal documents - where she found the name of other researchers in the field. She also used Web of Science, a Web site that allows researchers to see which publications cited a particular article.
Studio art freshman Eric Perez said he was familiar with television shows similar to the Science Study Breaks. He said he found the information about library resources especially helpful.
"I already knew about most of those resources," Perez said, "but this was good because it refreshed my mind about them."
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