Understanding how the stretching process strengthens spider silk is a key part of helping design stronger, biodegradable, silk-inspired materials for various applications. When spiders spin their webs ...

Spider silk is produced in a special organ with a charming name: the ‘spinneret.’ These are usually found on the spider’s abdomen – towards the rear and on the underside.

Not all silk is used for making webs, some spiders use it as a drag line. Others create parachutes for travel over larger ...

Spider silk, already known for its exceptional strength, reveals an astonishing manufacturing process. Researchers have discovered that stretching plays a key role in the solidity of these natural ...

By simulating spider silk in a computational model, the team discovered the stretching process aligns the protein chains within the fibers and increases the number of bonds between those chains ...

When spiders spin their webs, they use their hind legs to pull silk threads from their spinnerets. This pulling action doesn’t just help the spider release the silk, it’s also a crucial step in ...

Of the 50,000 or so known spider species, most of them do not spin webs. They still produce silk though, and they use it for some of the other purposes we have outlined above. Spiders who do not ...

Stretching spider silk makes it stronger New study finds the amount of stretching determines the fibers' properties Date: March 7, 2025 Source: Northwestern University Summary: When they weave ...

Scanning electron microscopy images of fibers from engineered spider silk. To validate their computational findings, the Northwestern team used spectroscopy techniques to examine how the protein ...