A Japanese startup called Spiber Inc. has created an artificial spider silk using synthesized genes which persuade bacteria to produce fibroin, a structural protein found in spider silk. Researchers have developed technologies to cultivate these bacteria efficiently and weave the fibroin into fabric. The protein derived from fibroin has been given the name “QMONOS” (from… »
As you can see from our news and articles about bionspiration coming from spiders, spider silk keeps on intriguing researchers to analyze it and develop new materials. Researchers at the Arizona State University (ASU) have used a non-invasive way to obtain a wide variety of elastic properties of the silk of several intact spider webs… »
Researchers of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, the MPI of Microstructure Physics in Halle and the University of Vienna have investigated the composition and structure of spider fangs which serve as reusable hypodermic needles used to inject paralyzing venom into their prey. The findings may lead to development of… »
We already published several articles about studies where spiders served as inspiration for biomimicry and analysis, but the new study by the researchers from the University of Akron developed the new biocompatible synthetic material similar to a specific kind of silk spun by orb spiders. The material could be used as new kinds of medical… »
While many research groups investigate toughness of spider silk by investigating the material itself, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Torino in Italy combined experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations to discover that web durability relies on the overall web design which compensates for potential stress of… »
A combined team of researchers from the Oxford University and University of Sheffield used a novel method to analyze the energy used in the formation of fibers in natural silk and synthetic materials in order to demonstrate that natural unspun silks taken from a silkworm are a thousand times more efficient than common plastics when… »
Spiders have inspired a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA to create a mobile robot which looks and moves as spiders. This high-tech assistant is still a prototype, but researchers envision its use as an exploratory tool in environments that are too hazardous or hardly reachable for humans…. »
A team of researchers from the University of Akron (UA) has observed two species of spiders in order to develop stimuli-resistant and stimuli-sensitive materials. The research shows that the sticky glue that coats the silk threads orb-weaving spiders spin has a different structure, property makeup and response to humidity than glues produced by their evolutionary… »
