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On building a worm detector

33 points · 8 comments · surprisetalk

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uriegas · 1790969092 · focus · HN ↗
I would have not thought that a work detector might be so useful
andai · 1791036945 · focus · HN ↗
The article mentioned Caecilians, which which I was not familiar.
It's like a snake worm thing.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian
And apparently they produce something like milk to feed their young. Wild!
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian#Milk_provisioning" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian#Milk_provisioning
1. tensegrist · 1791038028 · focus · HN ↗
  > Caecilians
  with that capitalization i had 200ms of my brain going "what part of the bible is that"
  1. card_zero · 1791064231 · focus · HN ↗
    When I was a juvenile, I repeatedly ate my mother's skin; but when I became an adult, I put away a wide variety of invertebrates.
    — 1 Caecilians 13:11
bgoated01 · 1791043126 · focus · HN ↗
I imagine in soil with any amount of rocks at all, ground penetrating radar and seismology are going to detect the rocks better than they would worms. I wonder if the worms make enough "noise" or vibration to be detected passively? I imagine not, but that seems like it has at least as much potential as the active detection methods for this case.
1. [deleted] · 1791055279 · focus · HN ↗
  [deleted]
2. andai · 1791107975 · focus · HN ↗
  We will need very small microphone.
  Speaking of which I was wondering, a spider building a web is probably making some interesting noises (the web vibrations), I wonder if it's possible to record that.
  1. bgoated01 · 1791128487 · focus · HN ↗
    Turns out large microphones are more sensitive, in general. Like here, they use a 1" microphone, I believe, to record a snail munching lettuce and a caterpillar tap dancing: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJH5n_HdNkA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJH5n_HdNkA
    andai · 1791198833 · focus · HN ↗
    Remardkable. So it's a very sensitive condenser mic, and a very low noise preamp. I wonder if this would be enough for the spiderweb. Glass and lettuce are a lot louder, I think. And you'd probably want it physically coupled to the web.
    <a href="https://www.grasacoustics.com/products/product/180-40HF" rel="nofollow">https://www.grasacoustics.com/products/product/180-40HF
yorwba · 1791049960 · focus · HN ↗
How about feeding worms a radioactive tracing agent to follow their trails?
Also, PSA from my high-school biology teacher that has been living rent-free in my head so far: If you intend to eat earthworms, letting them feed on coffee grounds helps clean their intestines so you don't get sand in your teeth.
1. bertm · 1791050171 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]

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