Latest Golden silk orb-weaver Stories

Studying spider silk, NSF-supported researchers learn about the properties of this sticky material, and their findings could lead to new bio-adhesives and glues that work under water Ali Dhinojwala and Vasav Sahni consider themselves materials scientists, not biologists. They study surfaces, friction and adhesion. Nevertheless, they have discovered that understanding how nature makes things stick sometimes means getting up close and personal with the creatures responsible. When they...

Researchers from the United States and Slovenia have discovered a new, giant Nephila species (golden orb weaver spider) from Africa and Madagascar and have published their findings in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal PLoS ONE. Matjaž Kuntner, chair of the Institute of Biology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a Smithsonian research associate, along with Jonathan Coddington, senior scientist and curator of arachnids and myriapods in the Department of Entomology at the...

A German team of engineers reported developing a device that borrows silk-spinning techniques from spiders to create strong strands with potential uses for lightweight medical equipment materials.The team said their work shed light on how spiders produce their rugged webs."We can observe the initial steps of fiber formation, which was not possible before," said Sebastian Rammensee of the Technical University of Munich and one of the authors of the Proceedings of the National Academy...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- A team of MIT engineers has identified two key physical processes that lend spider silk its unrivaled strength and durability, bringing closer to reality the long-sought goal of spinning artificial spider silk.Manufactured spider silk could be used for artificial tendons and ligaments, sutures, parachutes and bulletproof vests. But engineers have not managed to do what spiders do effortlessly.In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology,...