Adventure Ausrama Blog

Silk is not sourced from a plant. It is produced by the domesticated silk moth. Another silk with strength greater than steel is made by spiders. Many kinds of spiders can do the special trick.  There are plenty to study. If we could just imitate the strong silk, ultra-tough cables and ropes could be created. Better sutures for wounds, lightweight clothing and lighter suitcase would also be possible.  It would be a revolution.  Even solid panels could be on the cards. Spiders cannot be used in mass production. They make a little bit of silk in a large area. Not only that, but spiders tend to eat each other.  There are reasons why lab creation of "spider" silk has not been achieved. The DNA of the strong stuff has not been fully identified. Furthermore, properties are determined by the environment. The way spiders spin cannot be duplicated. It is complex. We need to develop a virtual robotized clone of a spider for mass production. Not something...

Spider webs are advanced pieces of evolutionary engineering. They are also collecting vats for what lives in the neighborhood. The DNA of what a spider had for dinner remains on the web for months. Silk from spiders webs is in demand for potential pest management, conservation, biodiversity monitoring and biogeography. It is a natural source of accumulated data and analysis of it is informative. If the DNA makeup of a web changes then something is wrong. In the tests, black widow spiders were kept alive by feeding them with crickets. When a spider died its DNA remained on the web for 88 days. In the wild, the net of the web catches insects, small animals and flora debris. Going out and getting some web silk is proving to be a valuable way of monitoring changes in spider populations, particularly when new species move into an area. Importantly, an eye can be kept on those on the endangered list. The method is only good for small animals because large ones take the whole web wit...