Scientists Unravel the Mysteries of Spider Silk with New Model

Scientists may have unraveled some of the mysteries of spider silk, which could help researchers design synthetic resources that mimic its extraordinary properties. This could be huge for materials science in the future.

Ounce for ounce, spider silk is actually stronger than steel. With its high flexibility, this means that mimicking the structure could have all kinds of applications.

"This is the first methodical exploration of its kind," said Markus Buehler, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "We are looking to expand our knowledge of the function of natural webs in a systematic and repeatable manner."

In this case, the researchers developed a systematic approach to research spider web's structure. They coupled multiscale modeling with emerging microscale 3D-printing techniques. This enabled a pathway to directly fabricate and test synthetic web structures by design.

The researchers adopted an experimental setup and used metal structures to 3D-print synthetic webs. Then, they directly integrated their data into models.  These 3D-printed models opened up a new door to studying the effects of web architecture of strength and damage tolerance.

"Spider silk is an impressive and fascinating material," said Buehler. "But before now, the role of the web architecture had not yet been fully explored."

In this case, the researchers unraveled a significant relationship between spider web structure, loading points and failure mechanisms. By adjusting the material distribution throughout an entire web, a spider can optimize the web's strength for its anticipated prey.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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