The strength and robustness of spider silk have long fascinated scientists and engineers. Recent research indicates that synthetic spider silk could potentially outperform steel in a number of tests, ...

Understanding how the stretching process strengthens spider silk is a key part of helping design stronger, biodegradable, silk-inspired materials for various applications. When spiders spin their webs ...

Take a walk through a forest, and you’re bound to come upon a spider web stretching from one tree branch to the next. The intricacy of the web can leave a person in awe, but what is even more ...

Engineers developed a method to create synthetic spider silk at high yields while retaining strength and toughness using mussel foot proteins. Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable ...

As one of the strongest materials known to science, spider silk regularly finds itself at the center of exciting engineering breakthroughs, and a new study involving a quick chemical bath could take ...

Silk proteins generated by bacteria engineered to convert polyethylene into this multipurpose material. Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Move over Spider-Man: Researchers at Rensselaer ...

Silkworms have been genetically engineered with CRISPR to produce pure spider silk for the first time. The worms could offer a scalable way to create things like surgical thread or bulletproof vests ...

The number of times I have walked into a spider web is pretty comical. At first, I saw them as a nuisance during my forest adventures, but upon a closer look with my macro lens, I began to notice that ...

Researchers report on a new model for spider silk assembly. The key to spider silk 'spinning' is a combination of acidification and a process known as liquid-liquid phase separation, or LLPS. Of all ...