There’s a spider in Britain that’s a tad unusual. Instead of spinning “thick” silk threads (in this case, thick means several micrometers), the garden center spider can spin tiny nano-scale threads ...

For many, the history of the silk industry conjures images of ancient China, medieval Italy or exotic India and the trade that opened continents politically and economically. However, silk is not ...

The caterpillars that spin commercial silk can make much tougher or more elastic threads, depending on how fast they’re forced to spin. If this research finding is translated into a marketable process ...

How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? Researchers in Sweden can now explain this process. How can a tiny ...

It has five times the tensile strength of steel and is stronger than even the best currently available synthetic fibers: Spider thread. Scientists have now succeeded in unveiling a further secret of ...

Turns out graphene, the wonder material with so many potential applications, is also the secret sauce to making tougher silk. A team of scientists from Tsinghua University in Beijing successfully ...

A research group, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, presents an ordinary silk thread, coated with a conductive plastic material, that shows promising properties for turning textiles ...