Spider silk may seem fragile, but it actually has a tensile strength that is a whopping five times more than steel! Scientists have been trying to replicate and harness the properties of the elusive material for years and now researchers from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and the University of Bayreuth have actually unlocked the secret of how spiders construct the elastic fibers. Armed with this new knowledge, they’re planning to build an artificial spinning apparatus that will mimic a spider’s silk glands, which could eventually lead to a material that could have an unlimited number of applications from medical to construction.
All I can say is that if I'm not webswinging by 2020, I am suing Science. Cuz I was promised flying cars and FTL travel, and they have produced neither.
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Have you seen the previews for NBC's fall show, "The Cape"? The hero in it has a cape that he uses as body armor and like a whip, that's made of spider silk (is this a REAL thing?). Fantastic-o!
Link:
http://www.nbc.com/the-cape/
wow Xiaolei, that's awesome! I'm glad to see NBC is sticking with the comic book genre after dumping Heroes. As painful as the show was, I was still glad to see the genre getting airtime.
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