“All natural” just got a bit more interesting. Companies Polartec, provider of sustainable textile solutions, and Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, a biotechnology company centered on the development and ...

Understanding how the stretching process strengthens spider silk is a key part of helping design stronger, biodegradable, silk-inspired materials for various applications. When spiders spin their webs ...

Engineers developed a method to create synthetic spider silk at high yields while retaining strength and toughness using mussel foot proteins. Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable ...

Take a walk through a forest, and you’re bound to come upon a spider web stretching from one tree branch to the next. The intricacy of the web can leave a person in awe, but what is even more ...

Silk proteins generated by bacteria engineered to convert polyethylene into this multipurpose material. Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Move over Spider-Man: Researchers at Rensselaer ...

Silkworms have been genetically engineered with CRISPR to produce pure spider silk for the first time. The worms could offer a scalable way to create things like surgical thread or bulletproof vests ...

Spiderwebs rarely make a good first impression. Even if you aren't one of the insects they're designed to capture, a sudden coating of silk on your face can be annoying, and possibly alarming if you ...

Spider silk is prized for its unrivaled strength and toughness. But figuring out a way to mass-produce it is no easy feat. Spiders cannot be put to work to pump out the fibers the way silkworms can: ...

Researchers report on a new model for spider silk assembly. The key to spider silk 'spinning' is a combination of acidification and a process known as liquid-liquid phase separation, or LLPS. Of all ...