In case you haven't heard, there's a "mysterious white web" growing on nuclear waste out at the Savannah River nuclear reservation in South Carolina. According to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report, "The growth, which resembles a spider web, has yet to be characterized, but may be biological in nature."
This story has thoroughly enticed thousands of readers for a few simple reasons. For one, it plays right into the science fiction mainstay that nuclear radiation breeds new, freakish, and occasionally terrifying organisms. Three-eyed fish, radioactive spiders, Godzilla; we've all seen them on The Simpsons or watched them on the big screen, and now, we're getting a real life taste.
As many of us wait anxiously for more information on this story, I can't help but think how absurd it would be if dozens of tiny little radioactive super-spiders burst from the growth. Now, this won't happen, but if it did, at least it would draw attention away from the partisan bickering that has once again envenomed Washington.
Another reason that this story is so captivating is that it has drawn a response from scientists that I think we all secretly love to hear: "I don't know." There's a certain hilarity about seeing stymied experts scratching their heads. It reminds me of the scene from Dinosaurs where Baby Sinclair spouts a strange golden horn from his head for no apparent reason. When he's taken into the hospital to be examined, Fran Sinclair (the mother) asks the doctor for his expert medical opinion:
"How did it happen?"
"Well, judging from its size and its color... mmmmmm... I have no idea."
Lastly, we all are mystified by the unexplained. There is little else in life that's more alluring. Pop culture-fueled phenomena like the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster provoke feelings of wonder and amazement with just a dash of fear (possibly inducing a small surge of adrenaline and epinephrine). For now, we can add a "mysterious white web" in South Carolina to this list of the unexplained.
In the coming weeks, we are likely to be told exactly what this web is, and it probably won't be anything too mind-blowing. But for now, we can have a little fun hypothesizing. Robert Gonzalez over at io9 theorized that it could be some kind of "radioresistant" extremophile. Cool!
How about another guess?
"I've got it!" my brother exclaimed after reading the story. "It's a viral marketing campaign for the new Spiderman movie! Either that, or we're all going to die..."
This story has thoroughly enticed thousands of readers for a few simple reasons. For one, it plays right into the science fiction mainstay that nuclear radiation breeds new, freakish, and occasionally terrifying organisms. Three-eyed fish, radioactive spiders, Godzilla; we've all seen them on The Simpsons or watched them on the big screen, and now, we're getting a real life taste.
As many of us wait anxiously for more information on this story, I can't help but think how absurd it would be if dozens of tiny little radioactive super-spiders burst from the growth. Now, this won't happen, but if it did, at least it would draw attention away from the partisan bickering that has once again envenomed Washington.Another reason that this story is so captivating is that it has drawn a response from scientists that I think we all secretly love to hear: "I don't know." There's a certain hilarity about seeing stymied experts scratching their heads. It reminds me of the scene from Dinosaurs where Baby Sinclair spouts a strange golden horn from his head for no apparent reason. When he's taken into the hospital to be examined, Fran Sinclair (the mother) asks the doctor for his expert medical opinion:
"How did it happen?"
"Well, judging from its size and its color... mmmmmm... I have no idea."
Lastly, we all are mystified by the unexplained. There is little else in life that's more alluring. Pop culture-fueled phenomena like the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster provoke feelings of wonder and amazement with just a dash of fear (possibly inducing a small surge of adrenaline and epinephrine). For now, we can add a "mysterious white web" in South Carolina to this list of the unexplained.
In the coming weeks, we are likely to be told exactly what this web is, and it probably won't be anything too mind-blowing. But for now, we can have a little fun hypothesizing. Robert Gonzalez over at io9 theorized that it could be some kind of "radioresistant" extremophile. Cool!
How about another guess?
"I've got it!" my brother exclaimed after reading the story. "It's a viral marketing campaign for the new Spiderman movie! Either that, or we're all going to die..."
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