The other morning, I walked into a spider web and was startled by the strength. Spider webs were a big thing several years ago after a July 1996 DuPont advertisement in "Scientific American” announcing that they were studying the biopolymer structures of spider webs using recombinant DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid--background is at: http://tinyurl.com/2wuv5--technology). They claimed a process that could produce analogs of silk in yeast and bacteria (synthesized material) that they planned to use this for all kinds of construction purposes.
Spider silk has some spectacular properties. It’s stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar yet flexible enough to be spun into a wide variety of shapes. It has been suggested that a pencil thick strand of silk could stop a Boeing 747 in flight.
Spiders use silk for a lot of different purposes. Constructing their webs, producing egg sacs, wrapping their prey, as a life line when jumping or dropping to escape, transferring semen from the abdomen to the male palp, in drag lines marked with pheromones, as a shelter in which to retreat.
New research shows that the material is not only strong but also smart. "Spider silk has a particular way of softening and then being stiff that is really essential for it to function properly," said engineer Markus J. Buehler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who co-authored the new study, which appears in "Nature" (Feb. 2, 2012)-- http://tinyurl.com/7vjvxg4.
A spider web provides its occupant with a home and a way to catch prey. It needs to stand up to pesky attackers and sometimes withstand hurricane-force winds. Using computer models of spider silk and experiments on the webs of common European garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), Buehler and his team found a web's unique skills come from its ability to react differently to different stress levels.
Silk is more than 50% a polymerized protein called fibroine with a molecular weight of 200.000 - 300.000. When looking at silk on a molecular scale, one can see that the protein strands are regularly orientated.
The silk is produced by the silk glands in the form of a liquid with a molecular weight of 30.000. As one would expect protein and other organic molecular distribution differs for the various types of silk the spider produces. Before the silk is released from the spinnerets, it hardens (polymerizes). At least seven types of glands have been recognized. But there is no known family with all seven types.
The production of spider silk is completely environmentally friendly and biodegradable. It may be considered a clean energy source; however, the production of spider silk is not simple and there are inherent problems. Among them, spiders cannot be farmed like silkworms since they are cannibals and will simply eat each other if in close proximity.
Spider silk is very fine and 400 spiders would be needed to produce only one square yard of cloth. If the production of spider silk ever become industrially viable, it could replace Kevlar and be used to make a diverse range of items such as: wear-resistant lightweight clothing, ropes, nets, seat belts, parachutes, rust-free panels on motor vehicles or boats, biodegradable bottles, bandages, surgical thread and artificial tendons or ligaments, supports for weak blood vessels, to name a few.
Try to imagine 400 spiders hurriedly working to produce a square yard of cloth....
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Comments » 1
Sick writes:
A government biologist was charged with studying frogs and was to give a full report to congress.
So the government employee/biologist got a frog and cut off one leg and told the frog to jump and he did.
Then he cut off the second leg and said jump and the frog did.
Then the 3rd and he still jumped.
When he cut off the frogs 4th leg he said jump and the frog didn't jump.
So he screamed JUMP! and the frog still didn't respond.
So he writes his report for congress. And when asked what his findings were.
He said when you cut all four legs off a frog they go deaf.
That's government for ya.
ps: I borrowed that.
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