Simulating stretchiness Despite developing this “recipe” for spider silk, researchers still don’t fully understand how the spinning process changes fiber structure and strength. To tackle this ...

Artificial silk is made mainly of either cotton linters or wood pulp, treated with picric acid; various secret processes give theresulting cellulose the required viscosity and sheen, by forcing it ...

Spider silk is one of the strongest materials on Earth, technically stronger than steel for a material of its size. However, it’s tough to obtain — spiders are too territorial (and cannibalistic!) to ...

They then wove their artificial silk fibers into prototype wound dressings that they applied on mice with osteoarthritis (a degenerative joint disease) and chronic wounds caused by diabetes. Drug ...

Ultra-thin layers of silk deposited on graphene in perfect alignment represent a key advance for the control needed in microelectronics and advanced neural network development.

Artificial fibres that can collect water from the air, much like how spider silk gathers dew, could be used for large-scale water collection from fog. In places where the availability of drinking ...