In 1995, scientists working at NASA took a break from the usual cosmic research to tackle a much different problem: getting spiders stoned. Their experiments have shown that common house spiders spin their webs in different ways according to the psychotropic drug they have been given; the more toxic the drug, the more deformed the web. Surprisingly enough, spiders on coffee created much more deformed webs than those on marijuana, speed and even LSD. Wonder why this happened…
Normal spider web, no drugs.
Spider web on mescaline – a psychedelic alkaloid typically extracted from cactus, used by shamans from North America to transcend in a trance.
Spider web on LSD
Spider web on marijuana
Spider web on caffeine – see how damaged and deformed it is.
Spider web on speed – it looks a little better than on caffeine.
Sleeping pills – the most toxic of them all.
Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he published his first scientific paper when he was still an undergrad; now, his main focus is on how geology and geophysics can be applied to understand and protect the environment. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science - and the results are what you see today. 
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Published on Wed, Jan 16, 2013 by Mihai Andrei
Post filled in: Mind & Brain