(Diane Labombarbe/iStock/Getty Images Plus) While the world drowns in plastic, researchers are on the hunt for practical ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Spider silk—six times tougher than Kevlar and stronger than steel—has ...

Researchers from Tufts University, Imperial College London, and the University of Michigan have developed a new way to turn natural silk into an ultra-strong solid material without dissolving the ...

For the first time, scientists have successfully produced full-length spider silk fibers using genetically modified silkworms. With high strength and toughness, this silk has the potential to provide ...

Dr. Ben Allardyce and Ph.D. candidate Mr. Martin Zaki from Deakin's Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) have delivered a world first in next-generation materials research. Silkworm silk is a ...

Understanding how the stretching process strengthens spider silk is a key part of helping design stronger, biodegradable, silk-inspired materials for various applications. When spiders spin their webs ...

The complex molecular structure of spider silk has been successfully copied as scientists spin silk from an artificial gland that mimics nature’s process of producing one of the world’s toughest ...

Scientists have synthesized spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, producing fibers six times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. The study is the first to successfully ...

Spider silk is prized for its unrivaled strength and toughness. But figuring out a way to mass-produce it is no easy feat. Spiders cannot be put to work to pump out the fibers the way silkworms can: ...

Scanning electron microscopy images of fibers from engineered spider silk. To validate their computational findings, the Northwestern team used spectroscopy techniques to examine how the protein ...

When they weave their webs, spiders pull their silk threads. New simulations show stretching during spinning causes the protein chains within the fibers to align and the number of hydrogen bonds ...