Spiderman's 'Powers' May be Brought to Life with New Spider-Based Glue

Spiderman has the ability to sling webs that allow him to travel through the city at breakneck speeds while sticking to walls. Now, scientists are exploring how to bring Spiderman's "powers" to life by exploring the properties underlying spider glue's humidity-responsive adhesion to create "smart adhesives."

Spiders are some of the most diverse species on our planet, with about 45,000 known species living in a variety of habitats and environments. About 7,500 of those species spin webs to catch their prey. The webs' spiral-like strands of "capture silk," in particular, play a key role when it comes to retaining prey.

The capture silk actually consists of an axial fiber coated with "glue droplets" at regular intervals. This spider glue is unique, because its adhesion increases in response to humidity. For some species, the adhesion continues to increase up to 100 percent. This is the exact opposite of how synthetic adhesives, such as those on Band-Aids, act on human skin in response to higher humidity. As soon as you sweat, they peel off.

In this latest study, the researchers explored the properties underlying spider glue's humidity-responsive adhesion. They measured the adhesion of capture threads from five diverse species of spider. The habitats of these species ranged from dry to wet to humid.

"We discovered maximum glue adhesion at the humidity levels at which the spider usually forages," said Guarav Amarpuri, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This is intuitive, but beautiful to observe in data."

Under the microsope, the researchers were able to view spider glue peeling and clearly see that its extensibility increases with humidity. In addition, the researchers honed in on spider glue's proteins and salts. Now, the scientists are hoping to better understand the role of salts in controlling viscosity and adhesion.

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