SPIDER SILK IS STRONGER THAN STEEL

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Although spider silk needs to bear the weight of its eight-legged creator and catch of the day, it’s surprisingly strong. The silk’s structure consists of proteins made up of hydrophobic (water-repelling) molecules that rapidly form when the liquid silk, called dope, is extruded from the spider’s glands. To put the silk’s strength to the test, scientists recreated the chemical structure of silk and compared the fibres to the strength of steel, discovering that silk is tougher than steel and the energy needed to break natural spider silk is higher than steel at comparable densities.

Spiders spin several strands of silk from tiny ducts called spigots