Spider Web

Using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, researchers at two German universities were able to unravel the process by which spiders store two kinds of protein polymers that they then assemble into silk. One protein conveys strength; the other, flexibility, and they link together when they encounter a higher salt concentration in the spider’s spinning duct.  Using microsystems, the researchers made an artificial spinning duct and are trying to mimic the spider’s fabrication, perhaps opening the way for absorbable suture materials and implantable bandages.          MORE