Scientists found out secret behind strength of spider web design
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 8:19:45 by Zeeshan Gohar
Scientists found out secret behind strength of spider web design
Researchers have found that the spiders have strong webs which are capable of withstanding huge forces. The scientists claim that these findings can be used to help design a new generation
of super strength materials. The study found that the spider’s web not only has a remarkable strength of the silk spiders spin but also has an intricate design which boosts its durability.
The spider’s web has a complex structure because when a single strand of a web breaks, the web strengthens after that rather than weakens. The spider consumes a huge amount of energy to
build a typical web which contains a series of features which stop major repairs being needed.
Co-author of the report, Markus Buehler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, said, “The real strength of the web is not the silk but how its mechanical properties change
as things strain it, which is a very sleek inbuilt feature which could be used in many areas of life to contain damage to a small area.”
The scientists found that the silk has an ability to soften or stiffen to withstand different types of loads. They ran tests against three other materials made into similar webs and found
that the spider silk was six times more resilient to damage like falling twigs or high winds than all other web structures.
This latest study was published in science journal Nature and concluded that webs contain two types of silk. The first type of silk is stiff and dry and is used in threads which radiate
out from the centre while the second type is thinner and stickier and is referred to as viscid silk.
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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar
on Feb 28 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech.
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