Spider Silk Is Strong Because It’s Smart Spider silk, and the intricate shapes of webs, demonstrate how knowing when to be soft and when to be rigid is at the core of its many functions: house, hunting tool, transportation aid. A spider web provides its occupant with a home and a way to catch prey. It needs to stand up to pesky attackers and sometimes withstand hurricane-force winds. Using computer models of spider silk and experiments on the webs of common European garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), Buehler and his team found a web’s unique skills come from its ability to react differently to different stress levels. A light wind, for instance, softens the web, allowing it to lengthen but retain its overall structure. If a larger force is applied at a specific location, such as when a particular thread is poked, the silk becomes rigid and breaks. Studying both the patterns of these webs and the molecular nature of what they are made of could aid everything from redundant network design to super-strong reactive materials like bullet-proof fabric. Previously: Goat’s milk meets spider silk. (via Wired Science)
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Spider Silk Is Strong Because It’s Smart

Spider silk, and the intricate shapes of webs, demonstrate how knowing when to be soft and when to be rigid is at the core of its many functions: house, hunting tool, transportation aid.

A spider web provides its occupant with a home and a way to catch prey. It needs to stand up to pesky attackers and sometimes withstand hurricane-force winds. Using computer models of spider silk and experiments on the webs of common European garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), Buehler and his team found a web’s unique skills come from its ability to react differently to different stress levels.

A light wind, for instance, softens the web, allowing it to lengthen but retain its overall structure. If a larger force is applied at a specific location, such as when a particular thread is poked, the silk becomes rigid and breaks.

Studying both the patterns of these webs and the molecular nature of what they are made of could aid everything from redundant network design to super-strong reactive materials like bullet-proof fabric.

Previously: Goat’s milk meets spider silk.

(via Wired Science)

Source: Wired

Spider Spins Zero-Gravity Web in Space

Golden orb spiders on Earth make mostly-circular webs that are lopped off on the top end. But these two space-spiders, shot up aboard STS-134, show that in the absence of gravity the spiders seem unable to tell which end is “up” (duh) and spin perfectly round webs.

K-12 classrooms on Earth will be comparing these videos to spiders that they have kept in order to pick out differences in space and Earth webs.

Bonus points: The spidernauts’ names are Gladys and Esmerelda, naturally.

(via Wired.com)

Source: Wired

Spider defense, technique 1:  Look like creepy moving spider-carpet to deter predators.

Animals have a multitude of defense mechanisms, from spraying musk to flat-out whoop-ass.  These daddy long-legs spiders have developed their own technique, which essentially consists of taking the natural aversion to one creepy spider and multiplying it times 100,000.

I know they aren’t deadly, but gaahhhddd that makes my skin crawl.

Video: A Hairy Carpet of Daddy Longlegs Fends off Predators | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com