New details about the strongest spider silk in the world

Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33839-z”> Schematic representation (not to scale) of the proposed structure of a spider silk fiber as found in the present work. (A) Fiber side view, (B) cross section through fiber. An outer, non-conductive lipid rich layer (green) of between 0.6 to 1 µm thickness, two conductive, inner autofluorescent protein layers: one which FITC shows higher affinity towards (blue), and another Rhodamine B shows a higher affinity towards (orange). The inner protein core consists of crystalline fibrils, aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber, surrounded by more amorphous protein regions. Credit: Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33839-z

Many researchers dream of deciphering the amazing ability of spiders to create super strong, super light, and super flexible silk threads—but so far, no one has been able to replicate the spiders’ work.

Should it one day

Continue reading on Phys.org

Leave a Reply