In addition, whereas barnacles just ooze out their cement, Crassicorophium processes its material in a spider-like spinning duct.

ECONOMIST: A species of crustacean makes silk underwater

This way of spinning silk is remarkably similar to that used by spiders, which pull the material from their bodies using their legs.

ECONOMIST: A species of crustacean makes silk underwater

Matter falling into them swirls around, and atoms rub together generating heat "like spinning a stick against another piece of wood to start a fire" and producing enough heat to make the material radiate across the electromagnetic spectrum.

WSJ: Book Review: Gravity's Engines