- Joined
- Jan 5, 2005
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- 8,325
don't even get me started on what i could do if i had a GCMS =POhh... now see that's a neat experiment - but it's a HUGE subject. In other invertebrates/vertebrate systems, this is often done with trace levels of pheromones/chemicals to recognise siblings. Unfortunately, this is difficult to detect/measure in most labs. I know a group back home looking at this in frogs, and were having a huge problem measuring/detecting and quantifying this.
To give an indication of what they ended up using, they had tadpoles in jars with water and a 'head-space' of air. This air was then passed into a neat device which costs a cool NZD$200,000 called a Selected Ion Flow Tube (SIFT - and was developed in house for the task) which used mass spectrometry/time of reaction analysis to detect products of pheromone reactions in a vacuum to quantify and detect.
And even after this, they didn't have a good answer.
But Damn, that would make a fantastic project.
^ another reason why i love the hobby! how many other times have you had q's answered and custom contributions by a freaking leading author(s)!?I would caution you to think twice about officially allowing a 7th grader (maybe 13 years old?) to keep and manipulate a P. murinus or any other tarantula that is known to have a potent bite. It's conceivable THE BITE could turn into the science fair project, much to everybody's dismay! And our hobby doesn't need that sort of PR.
How about using Brachypelma albopilosum, the curlyhair instead? The power fed males growth and mature extremely fast.
Good show, though! I love the whole concept!