Super powers found in spider silk

Super powers found in spider silk

Spider silk could help turn ordinary wood into a super-material, research suggests. Skip related content
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The claim was made by scientists unravelling the secrets of spider silk, which is stronger and less brittle than steel.

Researchers found that spiders are masters of nanotechnology, employing a unique crystal structure to give their silk such unusual properties.

They believe in future it may be possible to copy spider ingenuity to create new classes of materials that are both incredibly flexible and strong out of cheap, ordinary elements.

Theoretically, they could even be made from wood, straw or hemp, say the scientists

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Wow! I always knew that spiders' webbing was ridiculously strong but I never thought it could potentially lead to new materials.

Awesome stuff.

[edit on 15/3/10 by sotp]

reply to post by sotp


spiders in cages come to mind!! poor things.
I wonder what the first thing they make out of spiders webs will be

nice find

What I also find amazing is that spiders can make it room temp so no enery for thermoforming is required and intead of exotic minerals found underground they use organic matter(flies) and water, a completly non toxic and low energy procedure with no harmfull byproducts id not hesitate to call it perfect in comparison to current industry

i remember seeing something on the news year or so ago about spider silk
they basically had a genetically engineered gaot, with spider geans, the goats milk contained 'liquid' spider silk, and they more or less pulled this silk from the milk onto a winder.
thats over simplified but thats basically what they did, ill try and find a link for it if poss

The geometry of the crystals allowed the hydrogen bonds to work co-operatively, shielding each other against external forces

yet again geometry is the key. If only the importance of geometry as a fundamental in the universe was embraced we'd be leaps and bounds ahead. I think those influentual freemasons have alot to do with it.

I have a book somewhere from when I was younger saying they used to use spider silk as armour... Ill see if I can find it!

(meantime imagine what radioactive spider could produce)

I remember Sir Charles Shults III singing the praises of spider webs years ago. I think one of his claims was that spider silk also has a unique atomic arrangement/alignment that added to it's strength.

I'm not sure if this has been confirmed or not but it is interesting.

IRM

I saw something about spider silk in a documentary a while ago. It indeed has amazing abilities, but the problem is you cannot really just catch a couple of spiders and extract the silk from them.

This is once again a fine example of natures superiority in comparison to our technology.

Still so much to learn...

one time i tried to destory the spiders' webbing with the hot power pressure washer and the web hold up pretty good. That was almost 3,000psi.

A Canadian company has been cloning goats to produce spider silk for yeras now like the other poster said. This isn't anything new.

Nature has every solution to just about every problem we have here on Earth. But we humans would rather destroy her instead of learn from and cooperate with her. We continue to live a slash and burn lifestyle.

i once heard of a man who spent some years 5 or so i beleive collecting webs and creating a vest or plate of them that could withstand a 9mm bullet from a couple feet distance, entirely sure on authenticity of this story, but i can't recall who it was or exactly how many years he spent collecting the webs, something tells me 5 though

Originally posted by Ridhya
I have a book somewhere from when I was younger saying they used to use spider silk as armour... Ill see if I can find it!

(meantime imagine what radioactive spider could produce)

we might be thinking of the same thing

[edit on 3/15/2010 by indigothefish]

See this link for spider silk modified with titanium making it up to 10 times stronger!

New Scientist

Originally posted by polarwarrior
What I also find amazing is that spiders can make it room temp so no enery for thermoforming is required and intead of exotic minerals found underground they use organic matter(flies) and water, a completly non toxic and low energy procedure with no harmfull byproducts id not hesitate to call it perfect in comparison to current industry

I agree with you here, Spider silk is mate out of oraganic material. Many proteins connected together in a unique molecular fashion that has not been replicated properly to date. That is why it would be theoretically possible to use plants, wood, and other such organic compounds to replicate spider silk.

Originally posted by Zosynspiracy
A Canadian company has been cloning goats to produce spider silk for yeras now like the other poster said. This isn't anything new.

Nature has every solution to just about every problem we have here on Earth. But we humans would rather destroy her instead of learn from and cooperate with her. We continue to live a slash and burn lifestyle.

Ah yes, the goat. Those goats produce about the closest thing to spider silk that we have ever been able to replicate, but it falls rediculously short of maintaining the characteristics of the spidersilk dragline (what we want to replicate). Really quite fascinating, but hasnt really amounted to what we are looking for. In agreement with the above post, those studies have been going on for more than 20 years.

Originally posted by Ridhya
I have a book somewhere from when I was younger saying they used to use spider silk as armour... Ill see if I can find it!

(meantime imagine what radioactive spider could produce)

There is one issue with using purely spider silk as body armor. It is extremely ductile. What good is body armor if the bullet that hits you can go all the way through your body without breaking through the armor. However, since it is not easily penetrated, it would work extremely well in tandum with other materials

For example. Go out and shoot a true natural silkworm made silk hankerchief. It is bulletproof. But it is bulletproof because it can stretch and the impact energy of the projectile is spent countering the elastic energy of the silk. Now, to prove my point, do the same test but put a piece of paper a few inches behind the silk, The bullet will punch right though the paper, but will still not puncture the silk.


Either way, Spider silk is one of the coolest materials that nature has brought us. It is a shame how many more of natures gifts will be lost without the least bit of consideration.

It wasnt about modern ammunition though, it was about 'medieval' type weaponry


Edit: Cant find book but found the 2nd book. It mentions some certain types of spider silk is three times stronger than steel (same size filament). And spider silk is used in fishing nets in the Carribbean, and theres also a picture of a bird with a nest made of spider silk.

[edit on 16-3-2010 by Ridhya]

Originally posted by jumpingbeanz
reply to post by sotp

 

spiders in cages come to mind!! poor things.
I wonder what the first thing they make out of spiders webs will be

nice find

probably a super lightweight and thin kevlar bulletproof type material.

Look up Biomimicry, if this stuff interests you.

Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature
www.youtube.com...

Spider silk is also good for making tapestry. Linky Since spider silk is so strong I wonder it this thing is bulletproof.