Hardest spider

2009/06/07 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Fisika

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Silk is a viscous fiber that allows hunting insects. The spider has a layer of oil on the legs so that it does not stick to the net, allowing the catches to arrive in a few seconds after hitting the net. The insect is trapped and collected from silk. In fact, silk has great strength and hardness. It has also been said that the hardest silk in the world is what spiders do.

Metal support

The proteins of the spider web come together like the two sides of a zipper. (Randy Lewis)

It has been said that if it had the thickness of a pencil it could stop a Boeing 747 in flight. The military has used it to make bullet jackets and doctors to sew points in eye operations. This resistance has made him a small treasure of the technological industry. It can be a treasure of the future, as your research does not cease.

To increase the hardness or resistance of this silk and find new applications, German researchers have wanted, in some way, to imitate the behavior of metals in the body parts of insects and other living beings. This is because, sometimes, insect or other living beings' jaws, puyas, and claws contain small amounts of metals in protein structures that make them very hard.

The golden spider contains in its abdomen thousands of glands that secrete a recent polymerized silk, forming a huge net. (Werewombat)

To achieve this same effect in silk, researchers integrate metal ions such as zinc, aluminum and titanium into the protein structures of the silk spider network fibers. Despite several experiments, they still do not know what and how this hardness gives to the material. That is, they do not know exactly the mechanism behind them. They believe that metal atoms link together protein molecules. Normally, hydrogen atoms constitute the bonds between the molecules that form the spider web. In this case, it is possible that during the incorporation of metal ions these hydrogen bonds weaken slightly, so metal atoms can be introduced into these areas and form stronger bonds.

However, they have seen that this silk is eight times harder than silk without metal and it is not little. Researchers believe that in the near future they may have other applications in areas such as construction, aeronautics or space technologies. Artificial tissues used to treat both bone and tendon injuries are also expected to be more resistant.

In addition, a spider can produce six different types of silk according to its use. In general, the amount of silk produced by spiders is not very high. So that could be the problem if there were problems. However, researchers are optimistic. This technique will allow to develop new materials. They also consider that it will contribute to improving the characteristics of some synthetic materials that currently mimic natural materials.

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