It’s almost time to dust off the Halloween decorations and adorn the house with all manner of spooky things, including the classic polyester spider webs. Scientists reporting in ACS Nano have made ...

Scientists have identified the molecular interactions that give spider silk its exceptional strength, opening the door to new ...

Cheryl Hayashi uses a microscope to work on a spider in her lab at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Hayashi has collected spider silk glands of about 50 species, just a small dent ...

High above the rivers of Madagascar, a small arachnid is quietly rewriting what I thought was possible in nature. The ...

Nephila clavata, a golden orb weaver. — Image by Kinori via Wikimedia / Public Domain Nephila clavata, a golden orb weaver. — Image by Kinori via Wikimedia / Public Domain A new study finds the amount ...

Silkworm thread has been turned into superstrong material that surpasses the strength of natural spider silks, according to research. Scientists have made it 70 percent stronger than a spider's silk ...

Dissolving silkworm silk and remaking it in a solution of sugar and zinc and iron metal ions has made it stronger than most spider silk, one of the toughest and strongest materials in nature. There ...

Spider silk is one of the strongest materials on Earth, technically stronger than steel for a material of its size. However, it’s tough to obtain — spiders are too territorial (and cannibalistic!) to ...