By taking a page from nature, researchers have produced a strong, flexible spider silk
that can be produced in large quantities.
Credit: Lena Holm
We've built skyscrapers, planes that travel faster than sound and particle colliders a mile below the Earth's surface.
Yet in some ways, the humble little house spider has got humans beat: The silken threads spiders use to ensnare prey are amazing feats of natural engineering. Pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch, spider silk can absorb huge amounts of energy without ripping apart. It's stronger than steel, yet springier than rubber.
Now, scientists have created a synthetic spider silk with many of the same properties as its wild counterpart, and they can produce it on a large scale — overcoming two limitations that have stymied past research in the area. [Amazing Photos of the Artificial Spider Silk] https://www.livescience.com/57458-strong-spider-silk-produced.html
