Join Cool Science for Science on Tap every 2nd Monday of the month at Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs. Presenters begin at 6:30 pm and typically speak for 60-90 minutes including Q&A, with food and drink available beginning at 6:00 pm. A wide variety of fascinating topics are presented by local scientists for informal discussion, and the relaxed atmosphere encourages anyone and everyone to come explore the latest ideas in science and technology. From practical to theoretical, the presentations and group interactions provide a fun and interesting way to gain an understanding of the world around us.
Join Cool Science for Science on Tap every 2nd Monday of the month at Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs. Presenters begin at 6:30 pm and typically speak for 60-90 minutes including Q&A, with food and drink available beginning at 6:00 pm. A wide variety of fascinating topics are presented by local scientists for informal discussion, and the relaxed atmosphere encourages anyone and everyone to come explore the latest ideas in science and technology. From practical to theoretical, the presentations and group interactions provide a fun and interesting way to gain an understanding of the world around us.
Next up: Monday, September 8, 2025 at 6:30 pm
Spiders in Space: Spinning and Jumping in Zero Gravity
Dr. Paula Cushing, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Summary: Spiders have been sent to space on three different occasions. In 1973, orb weaving spiders (family Araneidae) were sent to the Skylab space station. In 2008, 2011, and 2012 a company called BioServe Space Technologies in Boulder, Colorado decided to repeat these experiments with web-building spiders and to add a new kind of spider into the mix of experiments – jumping spiders in the family Salticidae. BioServe partnered with the only professional arachnologist in the Rocky Mountain region – Dr. Paula Cushing at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In this lecture, Paula will present an overview of these experiments and what we learned from these arachnonauts.
Paula Cushing is the Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. She cares for the arachnology and marine invertebrate collections housed in the Avenir Collections Center at the DMNS. She received her PhD in 1995 from the University of Florida and began her job as curator at the DMNS in 1998. Her research focuses on the biodiversity, taxonomy, systematics, and evolutionary ecology of arachnids, particularly spiders and solifuges.
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