Spider silk is Stronger than Steel... and Tougher than Kevlar
If scientists can imitate the silk production of spiders, they can produce thin, bullet-proof materials.
According to a common myth, spider silk is stronger than steel. Many types of steel are much stronger at the corresponding thickness, but they are also much heavier and much more energyintensive to make. If scientists could imitate the production of spider silk in the future, they could make synthetic fibres more cheaply and eco-friendly than today. Spider silk also has a special gift for absorbing energy. The strong silk can be stretched much more than many artificial fibres, before it breaks. This characteristic allows the production of very thin, bullet-proof cloth, so police officers and other security staff do not need to wear heavy steel plates embedded in their vests. Instead, scientists will be able to make bullet-proof materials which are as thin as an ordinary shirt. Spider silk production has proved hard to imitate, however. The making takes place in the silk glands of the creature, in which long, complex proteins are converted into one of nature’s strongest fibres.