At seven times the toughness of Kevlar, a silk produced by the Caerostris darwini spider of Madagascar is more robust than any other material—synthetic or natural. Most spider silks are about two times ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

May 13, 2013 5 / 5 (4) 1

The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored – in spite of waves that sometimes pound the shore with a force equivalent to a jet liner flying at 600 miles per hour – are more prone to snap when ocean ...

Biology - Ecology

Feb 16, 2013 not rated yet 0

In a sweeping review of the field of bio-inspired engineering and biomimicry in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science, two engineers at the University of California, San Diego, identify three characteristics of bio ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Feb 14, 2013 3 / 5 (4) 1 |

Each time a spider draws silk from its spin­neret to create a new web, it also draws on more than 400 mil­lion years of evo­lu­tion. Spi­ders have evolved to pro­duce a library of silks, each using ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Feb 07, 2013 4.8 / 5 (5) 0

(Phys.org)—Researcher and team are the first to measure all of the elastic properties of an intact spider's web, drawing a remarkable picture of the behavior of one of nature's most intriguing structures. ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Feb 06, 2013 5 / 5 (4) 6 |

(Phys.org)—Scientists at Arizona State University are celebrating their recent success on the path to understanding what makes the fiber that spiders spin – weight for weight - at least five times as ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Jan 27, 2013 4.9 / 5 (21) 0 |

(Phys.org)—Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have deciphered the secrets of the production of cellulose, the most common natural polymer on Earth, in a discovery that could have major ramifications ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Dec 14, 2012 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

Nylon, Kevlar and other synthetic fabrics: Step aside. If new scientific research pans out, people may be sporting shirts, blouses and other garments made from fibers modeled after those in the icky, super-strong ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Nov 28, 2012 not rated yet 2

Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials known: Research by MIT's Markus Buehler has helped explain that this strength arises from silk's unusual hierarchical arrangement of protein ...

Chemistry - Materials Science

Nov 28, 2012 4.5 / 5 (4) 0 |

Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, ...

Physics - Optics & Photonics

Oct 11, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

A new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, demonstrates procedures to harvest and process synthetic spider silk from bacteria.

Biology - Biotechnology

Jul 18, 2012 5 / 5 (3) 0

Spiders weave a web even more tangled than originally thought – at least on the nanoscale level, according to a new study performed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Chemistry - Polymers

May 03, 2012 4.7 / 5 (3) 0 |

Austrian and Japanese researchers on Wednesday unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair.

Technology - Energy & Green Tech

Apr 04, 2012 4.8 / 5 (13) 5

A Japanese scientist said he has made violin strings out of spider silk and claims that -- in the right hands -- they produce a beautiful sound.

Chemistry - Polymers

Mar 06, 2012 4.8 / 5 (16) 13

Xinwei Wang had a hunch that spider webs were worth a much closer look.

Chemistry - Materials Science

Mar 05, 2012 4.4 / 5 (25) 10 |