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It Girl · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Clara was having a moment. Over the course of one summer,
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  Speaker 1: She'd gone from a complete unknown to the hottest socialites
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  Speaker 1: in Europe, from Amsterdam to Paris. Her name was on
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  Speaker 1: every tongue. Royals and aristocrats waited patiently to meet her.
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  Speaker 1: Crowds would gather wherever she went out in public, rich
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  Speaker 1: or poor, royal or commoner. Everyone wanted a glimpse of
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  Speaker 1: the beauty from India, with the large, gentle eyes and
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  Speaker 1: the prominent nose. It didn't hurt that Clara had a
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  Speaker 1: sob story to melt even the coldest of hearts. She
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  Speaker 1: was born in the Indian state of Assam. In seventeen
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  Speaker 1: thirty eight. When she was barely a month old, her
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  Speaker 1: mother was murdered. Fortunately, Clara was adopted by a man
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  Speaker 1: from the Netherlands who turned out to be a director
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  Speaker 1: of the Dutch East India Company in West Bengal. Clara
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  Speaker 1: grew up on his estate in Kolkata. She had free
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  Speaker 1: reign of the grounds, with valets to see to everything
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  Speaker 1: she needed, But as she grew her busy adoptive father
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  Speaker 1: struggled to keep her occupied. So he did what any
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  Speaker 1: affluent eighteenth century father would have done when they wanted
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  Speaker 1: to get their teen daughters out of their hair. He
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  Speaker 1: sent Clara on a grand tour of Europe. At what
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  Speaker 1: a tour it was. In July of seventeen forty one,
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  Speaker 1: after months at sea, Clara stepped on the dry land
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  Speaker 1: in the port city of Rotterdam. As soon as she
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  Speaker 1: was off the ship, people couldn't stop staring. The Dutch
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  Speaker 1: had never seen anyone like her before. By them, she
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  Speaker 1: was a symbol of the exotic East, where their spices
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  Speaker 1: and textiles came from, but where they had never imagined
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  Speaker 1: traveling themselves. After the Netherlands, Clara traveled to Antwerp, Brussels,
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  Speaker 1: and Hamburg. In Berlin, she met King Frederic the Second
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  Speaker 1: of Prussia. In Vienna, she was introduced to Emperor Francis
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  Speaker 1: the First and Empress Maria Theresa. She even stayed with
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  Speaker 1: Louis the fifteenth at his estate in Versailles. Then it
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  Speaker 1: was on to Paris, Rome and London. Because she spent
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  Speaker 1: so much time on the road, a special carriage was
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  Speaker 1: constructed to carry her from city to city. It had
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  Speaker 1: a single small window in the side so that the
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  Speaker 1: public could peek in at her for a price. In
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  Speaker 1: addition to royals and aristocrats, Clara met a steady stream
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  Speaker 1: of artists. She was immortalized in etchings, engravings, and even
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  Speaker 1: a clay model. In seventeen forty nine, she was painted
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  Speaker 1: by the French Rococo artist Jean Baptiste Ooudri, and in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen fifty one by Pietro Longhi. Clara was also popular
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  Speaker 1: with scientists and naturalists who had never had the chance
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  Speaker 1: to study someone of her ancestry. Sketches and paintings of
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  Speaker 1: her made their way into anatomical atlases and textbooks. She
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  Speaker 1: became the subject of songs and poems. Her face was
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  Speaker 1: printed on trinkets and memorabilia and sold to the adoring public.
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  Speaker 1: One of the most popular pieces was a golden clock
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  Speaker 1: held up by a figurine of Clara standing on top
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  Speaker 1: of music box. Clara's tour ended up lasting far longer
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  Speaker 1: than most young socialites. She spent decades in Europe and
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  Speaker 1: never again returned to India. While she was given ample
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  Speaker 1: rest between appearances, the constant traveling inevitably took its toll.
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  Speaker 1: Clara developed a skin condition and had to have fish
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  Speaker 1: oil rubbed all over her body to keep it from
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  Speaker 1: drying out. She also injured her nose while traveling in
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  Speaker 1: Italy around seventeen fifty, although it eventually healed. Not much
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  Speaker 1: is known about Clara's death Sadly, besides the fact that
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  Speaker 1: she passed away during a series of appearances in London
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty eight. Lived a long life and by
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  Speaker 1: most accounts, had been relatively comfortable, but it seems likely
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  Speaker 1: that she was also lonely. Clara might have been surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by friends and fans, but she didn't have anyone who
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  Speaker 1: could really relate to her experience. From the moment she
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  Speaker 1: arrived in Europe until her death, she never saw another
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  Speaker 1: face like hers. I don't mean just anyone else from India.
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  Speaker 1: Clara was kept away from other members of her own
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  Speaker 1: species because there's something that maybe I should have mentioned before.
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  Speaker 1: Clara was a rhinoceros. The mysteries of outer space have
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  Speaker 1: fascinated humankind for as long as we have been around.
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  Speaker 1: Islamic astronomers mapped the stars, Copernicus discovered the Sun was
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  Speaker 1: the center of our universe, and Isaac Newton is at
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  Speaker 1: least credited with discovering gravity. Today, many believe the secrets
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  Speaker 1: of our very existence are held among the stars. They
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  Speaker 1: wonder where do our souls go after we die? What
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  Speaker 1: even is a soul? These are big questions, but the
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  Speaker 1: elements in our bodies were originally formed in stars. After all.
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  Speaker 1: Others turned to the stars for more concrete answers about
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  Speaker 1: our existence, like can we survive on Mars? But before
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  Speaker 1: billionaires set to colonize entire planets, scientists took an unusual
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  Speaker 1: approach to studying how the human body works in space.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, the National Aeronautics in Space Administration
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  Speaker 1: NASA prepared its launch of Skylab three, the third in
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  Speaker 1: a series of American research missions into space. Keeping the
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  Speaker 1: tradition from Skylabs one and two, NASA invited high school
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  Speaker 1: students nationwide to propose experiments. One of those chosen was
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  Speaker 1: thought up by a Massachusetts student named Judith miles. Judith
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  Speaker 1: had read some National Geographic reports about drug research, specifically
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  Speaker 1: the effects of certain drugs on spider's central nervous systems. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you might be wondering why spiders, why not something like
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  Speaker 1: mice or monkeys. Well, as it turns out, NASA experiments
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  Speaker 1: on spiders date back to nineteen forty eight, when a
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  Speaker 1: Swiss pharmacologist named Peter n Witt teamed up with the
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  Speaker 1: administration to study the effects of caffeine and phetamines and
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  Speaker 1: even LSD on spider's nervous systems. These eight legged web
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  Speaker 1: weavers were thought as the ideal test subjects because of
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  Speaker 1: their webs, which could provide a visual depiction of the
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  Speaker 1: states of their command center. But young Judith took this
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  Speaker 1: step further. She knew that a spider's sense of its
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  Speaker 1: own body weight was an important factor in its web
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  Speaker 1: making ability, and so she wondered what would a web
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  Speaker 1: look like when made in microgravity? And her question was
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  Speaker 1: compelling enough for NASA to find two cross spiders, feed
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  Speaker 1: them a meal of one housefly each, load them into
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  Speaker 1: glass cages about fifteen inches long and one inch deep,
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  Speaker 1: and then launched them into space. Oh but not before
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  Speaker 1: name them too, Arabella and Anita. Upon arriving in the thermosphere,
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  Speaker 1: the spiders did nothing. They hid in the corners of
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  Speaker 1: their cages. Actually, reports on the exact timing vary, but
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  Speaker 1: the crew didn't see them for at least a day.
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  Speaker 1: They checked in often, especially since they had to man
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  Speaker 1: the lights that simulated daytime and nighttime for the spiders.
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  Speaker 1: As they waited for Arabella and Anita to show any
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  Speaker 1: sign of life, the two legged astronauts got their bearings.
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  Speaker 1: Skylab was split into two levels, separated by cross hatched beams.
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  Speaker 1: A center beam ran straight across, so the crew could
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  Speaker 1: pull themselves from one side of the workshop to the other.
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  Speaker 1: But once in microgravity, they realized that pushing off the
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  Speaker 1: walls and swimming through the air was much more efficient
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  Speaker 1: or at least more fun. At some point, though, science
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  Speaker 1: pilot Owen Garriot got antsy. He propelled himself to Arabella's
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  Speaker 1: cage and tried to shake her out of her hiding spot,
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  Speaker 1: and once dislodged, Arabella bounced around like an early aught
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  Speaker 1: screensaver until she managed to grab onto some mesh near
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  Speaker 1: the edge of her cave. There she froze, and she
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  Speaker 1: stayed that way until Garriot floated away. No one was
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  Speaker 1: around to witness the moment Arabella got back up. Footage
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  Speaker 1: shows the grueling process she endured before Gariot and the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the crew found her first space web. In microgravity,
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  Speaker 1: she was barely able to repel, connect and walk along
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  Speaker 1: the lines. She lost her grip and went tumbling multiple times.
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  Speaker 1: Often she hit the wall of her cage and lay defeated,
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  Speaker 1: And in the end, her finished webs just resembled the
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  Speaker 1: ones that were made by Peter Witz drug spiders, saggy
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  Speaker 1: strands that varied in thickness, nothing like those taut even
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  Speaker 1: webs that we see here on Earth. But by day
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  Speaker 1: three in space, Arabella realized how the rules had changed.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of repelling, she connected short lines within the inch
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  Speaker 1: of space between the cage walls, forming a sort of bridge.
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  Speaker 1: This allowed her to keep her footing while she measured
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  Speaker 1: out small spirals with her hind legs. It was like
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  Speaker 1: she noticed the labs crosshatches and figured that something like
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  Speaker 1: that might work for her. By the time Garriot returned
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  Speaker 1: to check on Arabella, she had finished her first web.
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  Speaker 1: This web gave some interesting insights into Arabella's thought process.
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  Speaker 1: Its shape and structure were solid. However, she decided not
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  Speaker 1: to use trapping silk like she would on Earth. This
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  Speaker 1: tells us that instead of trying and failing over and
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  Speaker 1: over to weave a complete web in one go, she
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  Speaker 1: simply laid a foundation. The lesson resonated with Earthlings. Footage
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  Speaker 1: of Arabella aired on CBS Morning News, and a few
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  Speaker 1: other high profile news outlets also cover the story. Anita
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  Speaker 1: also wove her first web shortly after Arabella, but it
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  Speaker 1: seems that Arabella's tenacity captured more attention. It seems none
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  Speaker 1: were more taken with Arabella than Owen. Garriot reports mentioned
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  Speaker 1: that he requested to keep her alive longer than originally planned.
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  Speaker 1: I assumed that the crew did the same for Anita. Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: both spiders died in space, most likely due to dehydration,
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  Speaker 1: and both their bodies have been displayed at the National
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  Speaker 1: Air and Space Museum and elsewhere where onlookers could gaze
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  Speaker 1: upon their small bodies the same way those early astronomers
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  Speaker 1: gazed upwards toward the sky, wanting to know just a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more about themselves. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.