Don’t be surprised if you see the US Army sporting fine garments made from Madagascan bark spider’s silk in the future. It’s “10 times better than Kevlar”, which itself is “five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis”.
Discovered back in 2008, the elastic properties of the Caerostris Darwini spider (Darwin’s bark spider) will inevitably be used one day as a natural fibre alternative to Kevlar, which as you know is used in rope, armour, building equipment and for other uses when strength is of importance.
Capable of spanning 3sqm areas, the webs hang from 24m long lines and are used by the spiders to trap its food. [Wired]
ouchie
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 9:22 AMi don’t get these claims. how do you quantify that it’s stronger than steal? what is the test? because i find it hard to imagine that i wouldn’t be able to break the web by grabbing a thread in two places and simply pulling it apart. something i couldn’t do with steal. even if you placed all the web together to make it as thick as a steal bolt i doubt one wouldn’t be able to break it.
rom
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 9:37 AMthe comment to read is “on an equal weight basis”.
Alvaro Ojeda
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 11:13 AMThe premise is that if you took say, a steel cable and a one made of this webbing, both the same length and width, the web-cable would hold 15 times more weight as the steel one.
So while you probably could indeed tear the spider’s web apart, you could do the same with 15 times less effort if the same web was made made of steel.
simulacrum
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:29 PMStraining my mind back to high school physics – they’re probably referring to tensile strength. You forget how incredibly thin spider silk is. If that thread was the thickness of steel, it would take a lot more force to deform it than it would to deform a steel wire of the same weight.
Nodeity
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 9:46 AMThat’s one ugly MuthaF*^#*%# Spider!!
Simon Potts
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 10:10 AMSheeeeeze I really feel for the dude that has to harvest that bad boys web!
matt
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 11:32 AMyeah, I love the ‘F*&k that shit!’ look on that guys face.
Can’t wait for speakers made from this.