New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water

[the other mike]

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water
New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water | Innovation | Smithsonian

Did you know spiders have 48 knees ? Yup, count them…eight legs with six joints on each.
Here's one of our little heroes in action...

 

[aaronleland]

Now they just have to develop web shooters and my fantasy will be realized.

THWIP!

 

[Marion Morrison]

Now they just have to develop web shooters and my fantasy will be realized.

THWIP!

You too had a Spider-Man web shooter as a kid, huh?

I was disappointed I couldn't launch it at the ceiling and swing.

 

[beautress]

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water
New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water | Innovation | Smithsonian

Did you know spiders have 48 knees ? Yup, count them…eight legs with six joints on each.
Here's one of our little heroes in action...

Wow, Angelo. I can't even wrap my mind around a strong product that says it is 98% H2O. lol

 

[the other mike]

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water
New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water | Innovation | Smithsonian

Did you know spiders have 48 knees ? Yup, count them…eight legs with six joints on each.
Here's one of our little heroes in action...

Wow, Angelo. I can't even wrap my mind around a strong product that says it is 98% H2O. lol

The other day I was walking out back on one of the deer trails* and as usual
got 'clotheslined' in the face with a spider web. (I should know by now to watch out for them)
...anyway that's what made me think of this. They're working on some medical breakthroughs and all kinds of things. I'm sure Dupont, Dow and the big chemical giants will patent everything the way Monsanto has seeds etc.

* No I don't hunt but most of my neighbors do, so our 38 acres tends to be a bit of a sanctuary they pass through all the time. I've hand-fed them leaves before.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

Good. Now we can rid the world of spiders. Hate them boogers!

Nothing worse than trail riding at night and the headlight catching a humongous spider in a web a fraction of a second before your head is wrapped in the web.

 

[the other mike]

Good. Now we can rid the world of spiders. Hate them boogers!

Nothing worse than trail riding at night and the headlight catching a humongous spider in a web a fraction of a second before your head is wrapped in the web.

My best friend had moved out to Tempe Arizona for a couple years to live with his brother. Well he was saying if you drive out in the desert at night you sometimes run over a bunch of tarantulas (they gather on the warm pavement when it's cool at night ) . Wouldn't that be a fun place to have a flat tire ?

 

[fncceo]

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water
New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water | Innovation | Smithsonian

Did you know spiders have 48 knees ? Yup, count them…eight legs with six joints on each.
Here's one of our little heroes in action...

Wow, Angelo. I can't even wrap my mind around a strong product that says it is 98% H2O. lol

The strength of any material isn't necessarily the matter itself, but the strength of the bonds between the molecules of that matter.

Dragline spider silk (the strongest kind) is a naturally occurring polypeptide where two different proteins connect in three ways to produce bonds that are quite difficult to break by force.

 

[beautress]

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water
New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water | Innovation | Smithsonian

Did you know spiders have 48 knees ? Yup, count them…eight legs with six joints on each.
Here's one of our little heroes in action...

Wow, Angelo. I can't even wrap my mind around a strong product that says it is 98% H2O. lol

The other day I was walking out back on one of the deer trails and as usual
got 'clotheslined' in the face with a spider web. (I should know by now to watch out for them)
...anyway that's what made me think of this. They're working on some medical breakthroughs and all kinds of things. I'm sure Dupont, Dow and the big chemical giants will patent everything the way Monsanto has seeds etc.

That happens out here in the piney woods of Texas every time I get on the tractor, and it's usually a different spider if I wait a week to mow. They are twits for using my Kubota for their nursery. A few weeks back, I took the Kubota to the back wildflowers-by-the-woods area in the north east corner, and I found a new vine had grown in there, blocking my way and I got stuck between two trees on a downslope to the seasonal creek that is about 8' deep there. While I was trying to unwrap the 3" in diameter vine that had orange flesh (don't know what it was, exactly) and a 3-4" black spider with yellow lightning-rod type stripes on its huge belly came whooshing down on a spider string that I swear measured 2mm around. Well, my shoulders were trapped to the seat canopy, and I panicked when I saw that minor monster who was coming straight for my leg, and I didn't like it. So I grabbed the string, and it slid down some more, creating the same kind of thread as it slid closer to my lap. Ack. At that point, I grabbed the string and after two slings, the spider dropped to the slanted forest floor, while it took me a full ten minutes to get myself and the tractor unwrapped and unstruck without heading even farther down the slope to the muddy floor still 6' down. The reason I didn't go down, is because that vine was one strongly grounded plant, and my huge Kubota was held between it and a 4" diameter sapling. Fortunately once the spider was gone, I didn't think much more about it , so I went to the flowered area, which was really pretty due to all the rains that made the flowers pop this year, then turned around to try to get out of the area that had eroded quite proliffically in the 3 years I had not visited the area. The amount of the erosion was a surprise, but we have had rains, and I just didn't anticipate it. It took some time to get out of there, and that ended my little unpleasant trip back there. I'm not going back there on a tractor, and I'm taking a gun back there with me, as we have black moccasins in watered areas on the little floodplain I live on. They know I won't mess with them on purpose, though. They're like wasps. If you act like you're just minding your own business, they catch on and mind their own business too. Even creatures that can hurt or kill you generally will not mess with you if you are busy doing a mowing or cutting branches task and you keep doing your job. Not much of a story, but that spider web string that extended from the top of my Kubota's canopy spun down to the ground in a matter of seconds (as frenetic as my horror was), which got my attention. And it came out of monster spider like a fluid, so I guess I do get it about the water, but spider webs are generally way stronger than they have to be. And the spider probably could have stung me good, because I had virtually destroyed his otherwise quiet, dark, and suddenly almost floorless habitat that had not seen a human face in 3 years.

 

[the other mike]

The strength of any material isn't necessarily the matter itself, but the strength of the bonds between the molecules of that matter.

Dragline spider silk (the strongest kind) is a naturally occurring polypeptide where two different proteins connect in three ways to produce bonds that are quite difficult to break by force.

Doing interesting things with beehive technology too.

 

[fncceo]

The strength of any material isn't necessarily the matter itself, but the strength of the bonds between the molecules of that matter.

Dragline spider silk (the strongest kind) is a naturally occurring polypeptide where two different proteins connect in three ways to produce bonds that are quite difficult to break by force.

Doing interesting things with beehive technology too.

In 3d printing, the material needs to be supported where it expands from a base. The software provides removable supports that do this job. Hexagonal honeycomb style provides strong support without wasting material.

 

[the other mike]

While I was trying to unwrap the 3" in diameter vine that had orange flesh (don't know what it was, exactly) ....

Sounds like poison ivy. Good thing you're not allergic to it.

 

[shockedcanadian]

The strength of any material isn't necessarily the matter itself, but the strength of the bonds between the molecules of that matter.

Dragline spider silk (the strongest kind) is a naturally occurring polypeptide where two different proteins connect in three ways to produce bonds that are quite difficult to break by force.

Doing interesting things with beehive technology too.

Everything from military aircraft development to martial arts, mimics and borrows from nature. When we consider the vast number of species and their often unique mechanisms, designs and abilities, it provides simple examples in which to solve human problems.

 

[beautress]

While I was trying to unwrap the 3" in diameter vine that had orange flesh (don't know what it was, exactly) ....

Sounds like poison ivy. Good thing you're not allergic to it.

That's not what my vine looked like. It was as bright orange as a yam, and I look like a Christmas tree in red if I brush against piece of poison ivy grows with a sleeve accidentally and the oil goes through. The that bark is not too far from it, though. Maybe it was. When I got in, I went straight to the washer, put every scrap I was wearing inside, Got some degreaser Dawn and washed down every pore on me. Fortunately, the washer had nothing in it, so everything was quick. I think that when I got out of the maze, I spent 3 or 4 minutes to get to the mud room and shower. I also shampooed with the Dawn and then followed with T-gel that discourages flying field bugs that like to get in between my 30-inch long hair and take naps. Then I dried my hair, grabbed my 100% cotton white twill pants and a cotton long-sleeved t-shirt and took a nap. Retirement has its advantages, and you can pamper yourself a little when you have an experience you'd rather not have had. I'm pretty sure my spider bud survived the toss I sent her to the soft forest floor with. /disclaimer

​

 

[the other mike]

Everything from military aircraft development to martial arts, mimics and borrows from nature. When we consider the vast number of species and their often unique mechanisms, designs and abilities, it's a provides simple examples in which to solve human problems.

Amazing creation the universe.

 

[beautress]

Y'all are welcome to have one of my birthday cupcakes. It's my birthday go here: USMB Coffee Shop IV And Ms. Foxfyre makes a mean cup of coffee. And the guys like to talk guy stuff.

 

[fncceo]

Fibonacci Sequence

 

[beautress]

Everything from military aircraft development to martial arts, mimics and borrows from nature. When we consider the vast number of species and their often unique mechanisms, designs and abilities, it's a provides simple examples in which to solve human problems.

Amazing creation the universe.
View attachment 276914 View attachment 276913 View attachment 276912 View attachment 276911 View attachment 276910 View attachment 276909 View attachment 276908

So you posted a counterclockwise nebula and a clockwise one. I wonder if one was southern pole and the other was northern pole like our earth's north and south poles.

 

[the other mike]

While I was trying to unwrap the 3" in diameter vine that had orange flesh (don't know what it was, exactly) ....

Sounds like poison ivy. Good thing you're not allergic to it.

That's not what my vine looked like. It was as bright orange as a yam, and I look like a Christmas tree in red if I brush against piece of poison ivy grows with a sleeve accidentally and the oil goes through. The that bark is not too far from it, though. Maybe it was. When I got in, I went straight to the washer, put every scrap I was wearing inside, Got some degreaser Dawn and washed down every pore on me. Fortunately, the washer had nothing in it, so everything was quick. I think that when I got out of the maze, I spent 3 or 4 minutes to get to the mud room and shower. I also shampooed with the Dawn and then followed with T-gel that discourages flying field bugs that like to get in between my 30-inch long hair and take naps. Then I dried my hair, grabbed my 100% cotton white twill pants and a cotton long-sleeved t-shirt and took a nap. Retirement has its advantages, and you can pamper yourself a little when you have an experience you'd rather not have had. I'm pretty sure my spider bud survived the toss I sent her to the soft forest floor with. /disclaimer

​

I have some osage orange ( horse apple trees) and the wood is super-bright orange-ish yellow and dense.
Maclura pomifera - Wikipedia

It was one of the Native Americans favorite bow woods.

 

[the other mike]

So you posted a counterclockwise nebula and a clockwise one. I wonder if one was southern pole and the other was northern pole like our earth's north and south poles.

Just guessing -- I believe the natural rotation is clockwise, but it depends which angle each galaxy is from our viewpoint ....again, I'm not sure. Also, because of the Coriolis effect, storms rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (Hurricanes) and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere (Typhoons or cyclones). I suppose the same goes for whirlpools, tornadoes or anything else,.