After years of research decoding the complex structure and production of spider silk, researchers have now succeeded in producing samples of this exceptionally strong and resilient material in the laboratory. The new development ...
Materials Science
May 28, 2015
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(Phys.org) —Rabbit, a brown-recluse spider, is fastened to the proverbial treadmill in Hannes Schniepp's Nanomaterials & Imaging lab. She is restrained but relaxed. Her spinnerets are churning out exquisite ribbons of silk. ...
Materials Science
Mar 10, 2014
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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 tougher than Kevlar, ...
Materials Science
May 13, 2013
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(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 strong as piano wire. ...
Materials Science
Jan 27, 2013
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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 slime from ...
Materials Science
Nov 28, 2012
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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, such as through ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 11, 2012
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A new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, demonstrates procedures to harvest and process synthetic spider silk from bacteria.
Biotechnology
Jul 18, 2012
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(Phys.org) -- Silk is a fascinating material, not just in fashion, but also in science and engineering, because the outstanding mechanical properties of these whisper-thin threads made by insects easily overshadow most man-made ...
Materials Science
Jun 5, 2012
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A spiders silk is strong and more elastic and has a large range of possible medical applications. However, spiders have a history of being territorial and prone to cannibalism, so the idea of having a large ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fritz Vollrath and colleagues from Oxford University have been analyzing the gooey material produced by tiny amphipods known as Crassicorophium bonellii, a small shrimp-like creature that produces the goo ...
