🕷🕷Spider silk is five times stronger than steel 💥💥😮😮
A group of Japanese scientists led by a professor at the University of Tokyo, Shinsu Masao Nagakaki, discovered a way to produce a special fiber from the web, from which you can make fabrics suitable for both lightweight outerwear and creating a heavy-duty body armor.
Researchers have integrated the genes responsible for the production of spiderwebs in the spider’s body into the chromosome of the silkworm. After this manipulation, silkworms began to produce fiber, combining the properties of silk and cobwebs. At first glance, the material is no different from natural silk, but it is much stronger and more durable. In principle, in its amino acid composition, the web is close to silk. But the structure of these materials is different, which explains the unique properties of the web.
Tests of the web showed that it has a high tensile properties and can withstand loads, like fiberglass. These phenomenal properties are explained by increased molecular mobility due to the composition of water molecules in the web, their share being 60–70% fiber. Without the water component, it would become brittle and brittle. The web does not break when hit with the energy of a bullet, which makes it the strongest material known to mankind. For example, if you create a spider thread with a diameter of 0.7–0.8 mm, then a grid of such cords will be able to stop a flying plane.
However, in natural conditions, it is impossible to obtain a thread of such thickness. And in artificial conditions to create an analogue of the web is even more difficult. But scientists were still able to create an analogue of the web using gene modification by inserting the orb spider gene into the goat’s DNA, which is responsible for coding the web proteins. After some time, cobweb proteins appeared in the goat's milk. The material created from the synthesized proteins, called by scientists "biostal", is noted by the Pentagon. Russian scientists are working on the creation of silk web, using microorganisms - yeast.
But getting web spider protein is only half the battle. It turns out that the properties of this material depend not only on the special nature of the web but also on the method of weaving threads. Chinese scientists have found that if the silkworm is pulled out of a silkworm, creating strong tension, the fiber obtained will be twice as strong as usual. The spider also weaves its web in a very special way, and so far no one can repeat this art.
An international group of researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, specialists from the University of Munich and Oxford followed the Canadians using genetic engineering techniques to create cobweb fibers that are almost identical to natural ones. Scientists have identified garden spider genes encoding rope silk proteins. The fibers formed from these proteins turned out to be six times stronger than nylon and are not inferior in its elasticity. The possibility of creating an artificial web on an industrial scale will open up new possibilities for scientists. The use of the strongest and finest fibers will allow you to create ultra-light body armor, microconductors, safety ropes, optical fibers and even a “spider” dental floss, the idea of which has already been patented in Israel. But the priority direction of the use of the web will, of course, be medicine.
Please
