![]() The team isn’t sure how the graphene and carbon nanotubes end up in the silk. The molluscs’ teeth stretch more than the spider silk, but are much less tough, meaning they crack more easily. The only natural material that is stronger than orb spider silk is the material that the teeth of molluscs called limpets are made out of, Pugno and colleagues revealed earlier this year. The best fibres came from a spider dosed with nanotubes: it was around 3.5 times as tough and strong as the best unaltered silk, spun by the giant riverine orb spider. So when you really think about it t he most unrealistic thing about Peter Parker's homemade webbing, i s that a high-schooler figured out how to make it in his chem class.Some spiders produced below-par silk, but others got a major boost. Jim Kakalios: "If you could manufacture it and make threads out of carbon nanotubes, you can make lightweight clothing that would be stronger than Kevlar." The researchers' goal is a tad more practical. ![]() Sadly, those threads aren't meant for skyscraper-swinging antics. Scientists at the University of Cincinnati, for example, have figured out how to grow carbon nanotubes in a lab.and then spool them into threads. ![]() Especially since we have the technology to make those nanotubes in real life. Suddenly, that ferry scene doesn't seem so far-fetched. Jim Kakalios: "That would be able to support over 40,000 pounds!" So a spaghetti-thin strand of this stuff, like what we see in "Spiderman"? It could support far more than just 900 pounds. In fact, they're over 100 times as strong as steel! And that's when they're microscopic. Because these tiny tubes are actually some of the strongest material known to humans. And if Jim is right, Peter is one smart high-school student. Jim Kakalios: "I think that instead of these little nanocrystals that are the proteins spiders use, he might be using carbon nanotubes to provide the strength and rigidity."Ĭarbon nanotubes are basically a sheet of carbon atoms that's been rolled up into a tube. Jim Kakalios: "It looks like a set of organic molecules that he's using, and he's trying to combine them in ways.to basically take these complex molecules and link them together in longer chains that would presumably fold down and develop into these nanocrystals and elastic polymers."īut Peter may have gone one step further and actually made one improvement to his synthetic silk. That combination of tough and flexible makes the silk extremely hard to tear.Īnd if you look at Peter's lab notes It looks like he tries to mimic that same structure. Real spider silk has two major components: Extremely rigid nanocrystals that make the silk sturdy a nd stretchy elastic polymers that make it pliable. That's physicist Jim Kakalios, the author of "The Physics of Superheroes." He says that the secret to spider silk's strength i s its structure. ![]() If he needs more, he just makes it a little bit thicker and he can support even more weight." Jim Kakalios: "And that's just a 2-millimeter webbing. B ut pound for pound, it's stronger than steel! So if you twisted spider silk into a thread that was 2 millimeters wide - as thick as a strand of spaghetti - it could support 900 pounds before breaking! Strong enough for a polar bear to hang from - so a scrawny kid like spiderman? He's got this. After all, a strand can be as little as 1/40th the thickness of a human hair. Now, spider silk doesn't look very durable. SPIDER SILK! This kid is trusting his life to a flimsy-looking strand of arachnid goo!īut it turns out if Peter's web is anything like real spider silk, t hen his web-slinging antics are more realistic than they might appear. And yet he chooses to replicate spider silk. Now, he could have made it out of anything - like fishing line or even steel. In the recent films starring Tom Holland, Peter Parker cooks up his own webbing in his high-school chemistry class. He also seems to have improved upon it, using what looks to be carbon nanotubes to provide even more strength and flexibility, just like scientists are investigating in real labs today.įollowing is the transcript of the video. After all, the real stuff is pound for pound, stronger than steel. When Spider-man made his own webbing in his high school chemistry class, he was smart to try to mimic spider silk. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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