How is a brown recluse spider like a samurai swordsmith?
There are two characteristics that work together to make spider silk so strong and tough.
Materials Science
Jan 16, 2020
0
12
News tagged with spider silk
Dynamics of silk proteins are key to outstanding stability of spider silk as biomaterial
Spider silk consists of fiber-forming proteins, stored by the spider in a specialized gland. When the spider needs silk, for instance to build a web, it extrudes the silk proteins through a long duct in which they are exposed ...
Materials Science
Nov 04, 2019
0
33
Spider silk: A malleable protein provides reinforcement
Why are the lightweight silk threads of web spiders tougher than most other materials? Scientists from the Universities of Würzburg and Mainz teamed up to find answers to this question. They were able to show that the natural ...
Biochemistry
Sep 26, 2019
0
12
Spider silk is created by adding spider DNA to microbes
Did you know that female spiders can weave seven different types of silk? And that, by mimicking spiders, humans have learned to make a silken material that is almost as strong as spiderweb?
Biotechnology
Sep 18, 2019
0
8
A combination of wood fibres and spider silk could rival plastic
Achieving strength and extensibility at the same time has so far been a great challenge in material engineering: increasing strength has meant losing extensibility and vice versa. Now Aalto University and VTT researchers ...
Materials Science
Sep 16, 2019
0
31
Library of spider silk could hold secrets for new materials
With two pairs of fine-tipped tweezers and the hands of a surgeon, Cheryl Hayashi began dissecting the body of a silver garden spider under her microscope.
Materials Science
Aug 14, 2019
0
8
New protein found in strongest spider web material
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and Slovenia has found a previously unknown protein in the strongest known spider web material. In their paper published in the journal Communications ...
First-ever spider glue genes sequenced, paving way to next biomaterials breakthrough
UMBC postdoctoral fellow Sarah Stellwagen and co-author Rebecca Renberg at the Army Research Lab have published the first-ever complete sequences of two genes that allow spiders to produce glue—a sticky, modified version ...
Biotechnology
Jun 05, 2019
0
727
Bacterial factories could manufacture high-performance proteins for space missions
Nature has evolved protein-based substances with mechanical properties that rival even the best synthetic materials. For example, pound for pound, spider silk is stronger and tougher than steel. But unlike steel, the natural ...
Materials Science
Apr 02, 2019
0
149
'Nightmarish' antlions' spiral digging techniques create effective and deadly traps
A team of biologists and physicists, led by the University of Bristol, have uncovered new insights into how antlions—one of the fiercest and most terrifying predators in the insect kingdom—build their deadly pit traps.
Plants & Animals
Mar 26, 2019
1
262
