Weave Goodbye To Plastic
Spider alchemy turns protein into threads stronger than Kevlar. Spidery production occurs at such a tiny scale that the spider's secret has stayed invisible until now. Today the mysteries are falling as science pulls apart both the molecular structure and the means of spider silk production. In labs around the world there is a race to copy each spidery step species use to bind proteins together.
When the copy is perfected, man-made spider silk could replace toxic and energy-intensive processes now used to make strong materials like steel and Kevlar.
If making a material stronger than steel out of protein at room temperature wasn’t enough to make spider silk worth copying, another idea might be - spiders can eat their webs and recycle them.
WHERE YOU MIGHT SEE THIS:
In your body. The first applications might be flexible transplant parts, such as ligaments.
Source: http://chirp.wildcenter.org
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