Electro-magnetic spiders

I think I've already posted this one but it has popped up again at http://spaceweather.com (July 20th 2018) … did you know spiders can fly? Obviously they can't – but they do have a most amazing way of elevating themselves and travelling long distances (from a spider's perspective). Biologists even have a word for the process – ballooning. Spiders can spin a strand of silk and as it juts into the air, off they go – flying. Originally, researchers thought they were riding currents of air – but it is not as simple as that. According to research published in Current Biology they can propel themselves using electric fields. These electric fields are said to be all part of earth's global atmospheric electrical circuit – a planet sized circuit of electricityknown about since the 1920s. Known to some – or the Few. Thunderstorms help build up a charge difference between the ground and the ionosphere – and this sets up an electric connection between the surface of the earth and the edge of space. In addition, cosmic rays ionise earth's atmosphere turning it into a conductor that allows currents to flow. Sounds almost like the electric universe.