Tag spider silk

January 19, 2012
in Science

Softly Spun, Hardly Simple: Spider Silk

January 19, 2012
in Science

Follow @yaleSCIbooks There are more than 40,000 spider species on planet Earth, occupying habitats from North America to Africa and from the desert to the rainforest. Yet in spite of their vastly different living conditions, all spiders have a similar body structure. How is this possible? Spider silk. It is

March 22, 2011
in Current Affairs, Science, Technology

Webcrawlers

March 22, 2011
in Current Affairs, Science, Technology

Julie Taymor’s out on Broadway, yellow sac spiders are in at auto dealers. Recently, Henry Fountain at the New York Times explained why scientists are having such a hard time replicating spider silk, the stuff behind Spider-Man’s superpowers and Mazda executives’ fears that the small arachnid stowaway could cause its