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Cómo el ruido de las ciudades está transformando a las arañas joro en una especie urbana
Las arañas joro destacan en Estados Unidos por tejer grandes telarañas en sitios inesperados, desde árboles urbanos hasta surtidores de gasolina y semáforos, lugares en los que el tráfico es intenso. Lejos de evitar estos ambientes caóticos, la especie invasora Trichonephila clavata ha prosperado en ellos desde su llegada en 2014, estableciendo complejos de redes incluso en espacios altamente perturbados por la actividad humana.
Aunque suelen ser tímidas, estas arañas han sorprendido a los investigadores por su capacidad de adaptación a entornos ruidosos. El fenómeno desconcierta, ya que, en vez de evitar el estrés acústico y vibracional, la araña joro parece beneficiarse de él, superando a otras especies menos tolerantes. Su éxito en áreas urbanas radica en una resistencia al ruido que les permite prosperar y expandirse rápidamente, según informó Carolyn Wilke en la revista científica National Geographic.
Para entender cómo las arañas joro soportan ambientes ruidosos, los científicos midieron sus latidos cardíacos mientras eran expuestas al ruido del tráfico. El equipo, encabezado por Andy Davis y Erin Grabarczyk, recolectó ejemplares tanto de arañas joro como de seda dorada en Georgia, eligiendo zonas con distintos niveles de ruido.
En el laboratorio, permitieron que las arañas construyeran sus redes en recintos especiales y luego reprodujeron ruido rosa para simular el tráfico. Utilizando cámaras de alta magnificación, grabaron los movimientos del abdomen de las arañas, que indican el ritmo de su corazón. De este modo, lograron medir el nivel de estrés de forma visual y sin procedimientos invasivos.
El análisis de los latidos cardíacos reveló que, aunque el corazón de las arañas joro y de seda dorada se acelera ante el ruido intenso, la reacción de las joro fue más leve de lo esperado. Davis señala que su frecuencia cardíaca varía entre 50 y 100 latidos por minuto, una cifra muy similar a la de los humanos. Aunque su ritmo aumenta con el ruido, la intensidad de la respuesta es menor que la observada en estudios previos con otras fuentes de estrés.
Este resultado indica que las arañas joro tienen una tolerancia al ruido del tráfico, lo que explicaría su capacidad para colonizar y prosperar en áreas urbanas. Según Erin Grabarczyk, aunque muestran signos de estrés, su adaptación al bullicio les otorga una ventaja evolutiva frente a especies menos resistentes. Esta tolerancia fisiológica ayuda a entender por qué invaden zonas urbanizadas y facilita su rápida expansión cerca de carreteras y ciudades, como destaca National Geographic.
El estudio también identificó diferencias en la forma en que las dos especies analizadas responden al ruido. Las arañas joro recolectadas en ambientes ruidosos presentaron el mayor aumento en la frecuencia cardíaca tras la exposición al ruido artificial. En cambio, para las arañas de seda dorada, la experiencia previa con el ruido no fue tan determinante: aquellas con el corazón más acelerado en reposo reaccionaron con mayor intensidad al estímulo sonoro.
La aracnóloga Eileen Hebets, de la Universidad de Nebraska-Lincoln, no participante en el estudio, planteó que factores como el ciclo vital o el estado reproductivo de las arañas podrían influir en estas respuestas individuales. Aun así, los resultados aportan datos novedosos sobre cómo distintas especies de arácnidos afrontan ambientes transformados por el ser humano.
Además de su fisiología, las telarañas también parecen desempeñar un papel en la tolerancia al ruido. Según Eileen Hebets, su grupo ha demostrado que las telas construidas en ambientes ruidosos y silenciosos presentan propiedades acústicas distintas, incluidas diferentes capacidades para amortiguar el ruido. Esto sugiere que las arañas podrían modificar sus telarañas para reducir la transmisión de vibraciones y sonidos molestos.
Aunque aún se desconoce a fondo cómo logran esta adaptación, la observación de los latidos cardíacos de las arañas —un método calificado como único y no invasivo por la comunidad científica— abre la puerta a nuevas investigaciones sobre la relación entre las estructuras de las telarañas y la supervivencia en entornos urbanos ruidosos. Se plantea que tanto las joro como las de seda dorada podrían emplear estrategias similares para mitigar el impacto del ruido ambiental.
El análisis de las arañas joro como invasoras no solo permite entender su éxito, sino que también aporta información valiosa para los esfuerzos de conservación de insectos y otros artrópodos. El estudio evidencia cómo los ambientes modificados por el ser humano, como las carreteras, pueden afectar a especies sensibles a las vibraciones y el ruido, un aspecto al que suele prestarse poca atención.
Numerosas investigaciones han mostrado que la proximidad a carreteras genera estrés en animales, pero este es uno de los primeros estudios que documenta ese patrón en un artrópodo. Andy Davis destaca que incluso medidas de conservación consideradas favorables, como plantar vegetación para polinizadores en los márgenes de las carreteras, pueden verse afectadas por el estrés acústico. Este factor puede tener consecuencias a largo plazo sobre los animales que habitan estos entornos alterados.
araña Joro,telaraña,ondas sonoras,biorreceptores,entorno urbano,investigación,biología,arácnido,ilustración,ciencia
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As the Trump administration weighs diplomacy and military pressure against Iran, a political clock is ticking at home.
Even if the Strait of Hormuz — the global oil choke point largely shuttered since the conflict with Iran due to Iranian attacks — reopened immediately, it could take months for oil flows to return due to logistical bottlenecks involving trapped tankers, swollen inventories and damaged oil infrastructure, according to Kpler oil analyst Matt Smith, pushing normalization of global energy markets closer to the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
«It’s then going to take until the fourth quarter of the year for things to return to normal,» Smith said.
The question facing Republicans is whether the economic consequences of the conflict will outlast the conflict itself. While the White House continues to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran, strategists and energy analysts say disruptions to global energy markets could linger long after any agreement is reached, leaving voters with months of elevated costs heading into the midterms.
TRUMP CONFIRMS ‘CRAZY’ NETANYAHU CLASH AS QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER PUSH TO HOLD FIRE ON HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS
The economic effects are already visible.
The national average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.241 per gallon Thursday, according to AAA, up from $3.144 a year earlier — an increase of nearly 35%.
Moody’s Analytics estimates the conflict has cost American households roughly $100 billion throughout the past three months, or about $750 per household, through higher fuel, transportation and related costs.
To some, the conflict already has gone on long enough to create lasting political consequences.
«There is a timeline and we’ve already passed it,» GOP strategist Doug Heye told Fox News Digital.
The White House rejected the notion that the conflict could become a long-term political liability, arguing that any economic disruption would be temporary.
«President Trump remains laser-focused on keeping the American people safe, lowering costs for working families, and making our country greater than ever before,» White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. «The President and his energy team anticipated short-term market disruptions, communicated them openly to the American people, and implemented an aggressive plan to mitigate any impacts.»
Rogers said Trump «will never allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapon» and argued that «when the President forces this conflict to a successful end, gas prices will drop back to multi-year lows and global energy markets will be much more stable in the long term.»
Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened immediately, it could take months for oil flows to return due to logistical bottlenecks. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
«We were promised that this would be a short operation, and repeatedly told it would all be over in 24–48 hours,» he went on. «This is no longer a blip.»
Others see a narrow window remaining.
«I think that it really needs to be resolved by July Fourth,» Republican strategist John Feehery told Fox News Digital. «If it’s not resolved by July Fourth, I don’t think the economy is going to have time to really kind of get going on all levels.»
Feehery’s July 4 benchmark coincides with a period in which the White House hopes to shift public attention toward the kickoff of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
The administration has alternated between signaling that a deal is near and warning that military action remains possible. More recently, Trump has expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations, saying they had become «very boring» and that he «couldn’t care less» if the talks collapsed because Iran was taking too long, while also predicting that oil prices would «be dropping like a rock» in the near future and maintaining that a deal remains possible.
But regardless of how the negotiations conclude, strategists argue that economic relief must arrive soon if Republicans hope to avoid carrying the conflict’s fallout into the midterms.
Republicans enter the midterms defending a narrow House majority that many analysts view as vulnerable to the traditional midterm backlash against a president’s party. The Senate landscape is more favorable to Republicans, though several races in states such as North Carolina, Maine, Ohio and Texas are expected to be closely watched.
Feehery argued that the political impact of the conflict ultimately will have less to do with uranium stockpiles, enrichment levels or the details of any final agreement than with whether voters feel economically secure.
According to AAA, the national average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.241 per gallon Thursday, up from $3.144 a year earlier — an increase of nearly 35%. (Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«They don’t care about that,» Feehery said when asked about the substance of a potential deal. «From the voters’ minds, they’re not worried about far-flung issues. They’re worried about the economy at home.»
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«George H. W. Bush kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and his approval ratings were around 91%, and he lost the next election,» Feehery said.
Even if a diplomatic breakthrough comes in the coming weeks, Americans may not see immediate relief at the pump.
Smith said the U.S. has been insulated from the worst supply disruptions because of its own domestic production, but the country is increasingly serving as an energy supplier to regions cut off from Middle Eastern flows.
More recently, Trump has expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations, saying they had become «very boring» and that he «couldn’t care less» if the talks collapsed because Iran was taking too long, while also predicting that oil prices would «be dropping like a rock» in the near future and maintaining that a deal remains possible. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
«We’re likely going to be seeing higher prices coming through in the U.S. because of that because, you know, we’re getting to a scarcity issue,» Smith said.
As Asian countries replace lost Middle Eastern crude and Europe seeks alternative sources of jet fuel, overseas buyers are increasingly competing for American energy exports, he said.
«Countries outside of the U.S. are bidding up U.S. prices,» Smith said.
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For Republicans, the concern is that the economic fallout could outlast the conflict itself.
«Even if this were all over tomorrow, prices won’t immediately come back to normal and if or when they do, voters don’t get a refund from the high bills they’ve already paid,» Heye said.
midterm elections, republicans, energy, economy, war with iran, donald trump
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Trump scores victory despite growing GOP divide after Senate passes $70B ICE, Border Patrol funding package
Senate scraps border and ICE funding vote
Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the pushback against President Donald Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization fund’ on ‘The Bottom Line.’
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Senate Republicans managed to stitch together a unified front to advance President Donald Trump’s roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement package, but divisions over the president’s agenda were laid bare after a marathon day of votes.
Passage of the budget reconciliation package geared toward funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years closes a long, drawn out chapter in the Senate that began during the longest shutdown in history.
It’s a point that Senate Republicans tried to return to throughout the day, reiterating that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats had forced their hands after refusing to fund immigration operations without a plethora of reforms.
DOZEN GOP REBELS FAIL TO PERMANENTLY KILL TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND
President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
«Democrats would not agree to anything, and eventually they walked away altogether, presumably because they thought that it would serve them better to have an issue for November,» Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.
But the day, and preceding weeks, were dominated by a growing rift between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration that threatened to blow up the process altogether.
First, it was the inclusion of $1 billion in funding for security upgrades to Trump’s ballroom, which was later stripped out.
Then, it was the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) announcement that a nearly $2 billion «anti-weaponization» fund was being launched to allow people who felt targeted by the government to make a claim from the pot of taxpayer money.
GOP ADVANCES ICE FUNDING PACKAGE AFTER FORCING TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND INTO RETREAT
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy questions National Institutes of Health Director Jayanta Bhattacharya during a hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Several Senate Republicans worried that the money could be accessed by Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who were convicted of assaulting police.
Schumer and Democrats leaned into that open wound and spent much of the marathon, «vote-a-rama» vote series trying to spell a permanent end to the fund, despite acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowing that the administration would no longer pursue it.
«Do we believe that Donald Trump, who has lied to us day in and day out, do we believe that he will be able to resist getting his sticky fingers in the slush fund when it would benefit himself and his family? No way, no way,» Schumer said.
GOP LEVERAGES ICE FUNDING PACKAGE TO MAKE TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND ‘NEVER EXIST’
Many of the amendments pushed by Democrats placed Republicans in tough bids for reelection, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, into politically challenging positions.
Republicans tried to kill it, too, causing tensions on the Senate floor to rise.
«It’s not that tense,» Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. «I mean, I’ve seen worse. Nobody’s stabbed anybody yet.»
Still, the process nearly came to a grinding halt because of the fund at the start of the marathon vote series when Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and others wanted to ensure that GOP attempts to end the fund would get a vote, too.
«I just wanted to optimize the chances of success,» Cassidy said of the delay.
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Ultimately, despite a dozen Republicans voting for Sen. Thom Tillis’, R-N.C., amendment, and X voting for Cassidy’s, all attempts to thwart future bids to revive the fund failed.
The ballroom also came back into the picture when six Republicans joined Senate Democrats to prevent construction on the colossal structure from going forward without congressional approval.
Then there was an attempt by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to attach the SAVE America Act to the reconciliation package, which met Republican resistance and ultimately failed, too.
The package now heads to the House, where Republicans are expected to pass it by the end of the week.
politics, immigration, republicans elections, john thune, senate elections, democrats senate
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