0:04

Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities,

0:06

a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and

0:08

Mild. Our

0:13

world is full of the unexplainable,

0:16

and if history is an open book, all

0:18

of these amazing tales right

0:20

there on display, just waiting

0:22

for us to explore. Welcome

0:26

to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

0:36

Clara was having a moment. Over

0:38

the course of one summer, She'd gone from a complete

0:41

unknown to the hottest socialites in

0:43

Europe, from Amsterdam to Paris.

0:45

Her name was on every tongue.

0:47

Royals and aristocrats waited

0:49

patiently to meet her. Crowds would

0:51

gather wherever she went out in public,

0:54

rich or poor, royal or commoner.

0:57

Everyone wanted a glimpse of the beauty

0:59

from India, with the large, gentle

1:01

eyes and the prominent nose. It

1:03

didn't hurt that Clara had a sob story

1:05

to melt even the coldest of hearts.

1:08

She was born in the Indian state of Assam.

1:10

In seventeen thirty eight. When she was

1:12

barely a month old, her mother was murdered.

1:15

Fortunately, Clara was adopted by a man

1:17

from the Netherlands who turned out to be a

1:19

director of the Dutch East India Company

1:22

in West Bengal. Clara

1:24

grew up on his estate in Kolkata.

1:26

She had free reign of the grounds, with valets

1:28

to see to everything she needed, But

1:31

as she grew her busy adoptive

1:33

father struggled to keep her occupied. So

1:35

he did what any affluent eighteenth century

1:38

father would have done when they wanted to get their teen

1:40

daughters out of their hair. He sent Clara

1:42

on a grand tour of Europe. At

1:44

what a tour it was. In

1:46

July of seventeen forty one, after

1:49

months at sea, Clara stepped on the

1:51

dry land in the port city of Rotterdam.

1:53

As soon as she was off the ship, people

1:55

couldn't stop staring. The Dutch had

1:57

never seen anyone like her before. By

2:00

them, she was a symbol of the exotic

2:02

East, where their spices and textiles

2:04

came from, but where they had never imagined

2:07

traveling themselves. After

2:09

the Netherlands, Clara traveled to Antwerp,

2:11

Brussels, and Hamburg. In Berlin,

2:14

she met King Frederic the Second of Prussia. In

2:16

Vienna, she was introduced to Emperor Francis

2:19

the First and Empress Maria Theresa.

2:21

She even stayed with Louis the fifteenth at

2:23

his estate in Versailles. Then it

2:25

was on to Paris, Rome and London.

2:28

Because she spent so much time on the road,

2:31

a special carriage was constructed to carry

2:33

her from city to city. It had a single

2:35

small window in the side so that the public

2:38

could peek in at her for a price. In

2:40

addition to royals and aristocrats, Clara

2:43

met a steady stream of artists. She

2:45

was immortalized in etchings, engravings,

2:47

and even a clay model. In seventeen

2:49

forty nine, she was painted by the French Rococo

2:52

artist Jean Baptiste Ooudri, and

2:54

in seventeen fifty one by Pietro

2:56

Longhi. Clara was also popular

2:59

with scientists and naturalists who had never

3:01

had the chance to study someone of her

3:03

ancestry. Sketches and paintings

3:05

of her made their way into anatomical

3:07

atlases and textbooks. She

3:10

became the subject of songs and poems.

3:12

Her face was printed on trinkets and memorabilia

3:15

and sold to the adoring public. One

3:17

of the most popular pieces was a golden

3:20

clock held up by a figurine

3:22

of Clara standing on top of music

3:24

box. Clara's tour ended

3:26

up lasting far longer than most young

3:28

socialites. She spent decades

3:30

in Europe and never again returned to India.

3:33

While she was given ample rest between appearances,

3:36

the constant traveling inevitably took

3:38

its toll. Clara developed a skin

3:40

condition and had to have fish oil rubbed

3:42

all over her body to keep it from drying out.

3:45

She also injured her nose while traveling

3:47

in Italy around seventeen fifty, although

3:49

it eventually healed. Not much

3:51

is known about Clara's death Sadly,

3:54

besides the fact that she passed away during a

3:56

series of appearances in London in

3:58

seventeen fifty eight. Lived

4:00

a long life and by most accounts, had been

4:02

relatively comfortable, but it seems

4:04

likely that she was also lonely. Clara

4:07

might have been surrounded by friends and fans,

4:10

but she didn't have anyone who could really relate

4:12

to her experience. From the moment she

4:14

arrived in Europe until her death, she

4:17

never saw another face like hers. I

4:19

don't mean just anyone else from India.

4:22

Clara was kept away from other members

4:24

of her own species because there's

4:26

something that maybe I should have mentioned before.

4:29

Clara was a rhinoceros.

4:45

The mysteries of outer space have fascinated

4:47

humankind for as long as we have been around.

4:50

Islamic astronomers mapped the stars,

4:52

Copernicus discovered the Sun was the center

4:54

of our universe, and Isaac Newton is

4:57

at least credited with discovering gravity.

5:00

Today, many believe the secrets of our very

5:02

existence are held among the stars.

5:04

They wonder where do our souls go after

5:07

we die? What even is a soul?

5:09

These are big questions, but the elements

5:12

in our bodies were originally formed

5:14

in stars. After all. Others

5:16

turned to the stars for more concrete answers

5:18

about our existence, like can we

5:21

survive on Mars? But before billionaires

5:23

set to colonize entire planets, scientists

5:26

took an unusual approach to studying

5:28

how the human body works in space.

5:31

In nineteen seventy two, the National

5:33

Aeronautics in Space Administration NASA

5:36

prepared its launch of Skylab three,

5:38

the third in a series of American research

5:41

missions into space. Keeping the tradition

5:43

from Skylabs one and two, NASA

5:45

invited high school students nationwide

5:47

to propose experiments. One of those

5:49

chosen was thought up by a Massachusetts student

5:52

named Judith miles. Judith

5:54

had read some National Geographic reports about

5:56

drug research, specifically the effects

5:58

of certain drugs on spider's

6:00

central nervous systems. Now, you

6:03

might be wondering why spiders, why

6:05

not something like mice or monkeys. Well,

6:08

as it turns out, NASA experiments

6:10

on spiders date back to nineteen

6:12

forty eight, when a Swiss pharmacologist

6:15

named Peter n Witt teamed up

6:17

with the administration to study the effects of

6:19

caffeine and phetamines and even

6:21

LSD on spider's nervous

6:23

systems. These eight legged web weavers

6:26

were thought as the ideal test subjects

6:28

because of their webs, which could provide

6:30

a visual depiction of the states of their

6:32

command center. But young Judith

6:34

took this step further. She knew that a spider's

6:37

sense of its own body weight was an important

6:39

factor in its web making ability,

6:41

and so she wondered what would a web look

6:43

like when made in microgravity? And

6:46

her question was compelling enough for NASA

6:48

to find two cross spiders, feed

6:50

them a meal of one housefly each, load

6:52

them into glass cages about fifteen inches

6:55

long and one inch deep, and then launched

6:57

them into space. Oh but not

6:59

before name them too, Arabella

7:01

and Anita. Upon arriving

7:04

in the thermosphere, the spiders did nothing.

7:07

They hid in the corners of their cages. Actually,

7:10

reports on the exact timing vary, but the crew

7:12

didn't see them for at least a day. They

7:15

checked in often, especially since they had to

7:17

man the lights that simulated daytime

7:19

and nighttime for the spiders. As

7:21

they waited for Arabella and Anita

7:23

to show any sign of life, the two legged

7:25

astronauts got their bearings. Skylab

7:28

was split into two levels, separated

7:31

by cross hatched beams. A center

7:33

beam ran straight across, so the crew could pull

7:35

themselves from one side of the workshop to the

7:37

other. But once in microgravity,

7:40

they realized that pushing off the walls and

7:42

swimming through the air was much more

7:44

efficient or at least more

7:46

fun. At some point, though, science

7:49

pilot Owen Garriot got antsy. He

7:51

propelled himself to Arabella's cage

7:53

and tried to shake her out of her hiding spot,

7:56

and once dislodged, Arabella bounced

7:58

around like an early aught screensaver

8:00

until she managed to grab onto some mesh

8:03

near the edge of her cave. There she

8:05

froze, and she stayed that way until

8:07

Garriot floated away. No

8:09

one was around to witness the moment Arabella

8:11

got back up. Footage shows the grueling

8:14

process she endured before Gariot and the

8:16

rest of the crew found her first space

8:18

web. In microgravity,

8:20

she was barely able to repel, connect

8:22

and walk along the lines. She lost

8:25

her grip and went tumbling multiple times.

8:27

Often she hit the wall of her cage and lay

8:30

defeated, And in the end, her finished

8:32

webs just resembled the ones that were made

8:34

by Peter Witz drug spiders, saggy

8:36

strands that varied in thickness, nothing

8:39

like those taut even webs that we see

8:41

here on Earth. But by day three

8:43

in space, Arabella realized how the rules

8:46

had changed. Instead of repelling, she

8:48

connected short lines within the inch of

8:50

space between the cage walls, forming

8:52

a sort of bridge. This allowed her to keep

8:54

her footing while she measured out small

8:56

spirals with her hind legs. It was like

8:58

she noticed the labs crosshatches and

9:01

figured that something like that might work

9:03

for her. By the time Garriot

9:05

returned to check on Arabella, she had finished

9:07

her first web. This web gave some

9:10

interesting insights into Arabella's thought

9:12

process. Its shape and structure

9:14

were solid. However, she decided not

9:16

to use trapping silk like she would on

9:19

Earth. This tells us that instead of trying

9:21

and failing over and over to weave a

9:23

complete web in one go, she simply

9:26

laid a foundation. The

9:28

lesson resonated with Earthlings. Footage

9:30

of Arabella aired on CBS Morning

9:32

News, and a few other high profile

9:34

news outlets also cover the story. Anita

9:37

also wove her first web shortly after

9:39

Arabella, but it seems that Arabella's

9:42

tenacity captured more attention.

9:44

It seems none were more taken with Arabella

9:47

than Owen. Garriot reports mentioned

9:49

that he requested to keep her alive longer

9:51

than originally planned. I assumed

9:53

that the crew did the same for Anita.

9:56

Eventually, both spiders died in space,

9:59

most likely due to dehydration, and

10:01

both their bodies have been displayed at the National

10:03

Air and Space Museum and elsewhere

10:05

where onlookers could gaze upon their small

10:07

bodies the same way those early astronomers

10:10

gazed upwards toward the sky, wanting

10:12

to know just a little bit more

10:14

about themselves. I

10:20

hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the

10:22

cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

10:24

for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

10:26

more about the show by visiting Curiosities

10:29

podcast dot com.

10:31

The show was created by me Aaron

10:33

Mankey in partnership with how Stuff

10:35

Works. I make another award winning

10:38

show called Lore, which is a podcast,

10:40

book series, and television show, and

10:42

you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore

10:45

dot com. And until next

10:47

time, stay curious.