Spider silk has always fascinated scientists, particularly when they noticed the numerous applications that the organic substance could be used for if only they could recreate its properties with a synthetic equivalent. Recently, it seems a collaborative effort by scientists from France's Université Pierre et Marie Curie and Oxford University has resulted in an actual synthetic version of spider silk.
According to study lead Hervé Elettro, the stretchiness of spider silk is what allows it to have significantly more tensile strength than rubber; about ten times. The spider web used in the study comes from Australian Golden Orb Weavers, and the researchers found that the silk had the fascinating property of returning to its original state even after being stretched several times its original length.
Now, the reason for why spiders form webs in the first place is to catch food using the sticky substance on the silk. However, the study also found that the glue that grabs the food is what allows the web to have such remarkable strength and stretchiness.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which details all the unique properties found in the spider silk. The findings could also have a significant impact in the field of robotics and engineering, particularly considering that the scientists were actually able to create synthetic spider silk.
Once they understood the unique properties of the organic silk and the "liquid wire" as they called the gooey substance in the web, they were able to reproduce five synthetic versions. The best out of them as reported by Cosmos Magazine is "a polyurethane filament brushed in silicone oil droplets" which can be stretched by an astounding 1,500 percent.
It would seem that the oil droplets made all the difference because according to Elettro, polyurethane filament would break when pressure is applied. This is not the case when it is brushed with the oil.
