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The average toughness of the fibres is 350 MJ/m 3, and some are up to 520 MJ/m 3, making the silk twice as tough as any other spider silk known. [8] The web of Darwin's bark spider is remarkable in that it is not only the longest spanning web ever observed, but is the largest orb web ever seen, at an area of up to 2.8 square metres (30 sq ft). [2]
The tensile strength listed for steel might be slightly higher – e.g. 1.65 GPa, [24] [25] but spider silk is a much less dense material, so that a given weight of spider silk is five times as strong as the same weight of steel.)
The length of the silk fiber depends on how it has been prepared. Since the cocoon is made of one strand, if the cocoon is unwound carefully the fibers can be very long. Spider silk is the strongest natural fiber known. The strongest dragline silk is five times stronger than steel and three times tougher than Kevlar.
The silk is a complex form of protein fiber that starts off as a protein-rich liquid and then dries into solid filaments, thanks to spinnerets, an external portion of spider glands.
The reported strength of dragon silk is as high as 1.79 GPa, which is 37% higher than the widely reported spider silk. Its tensile strength is higher than the "Big Red silk," which had been reported as the strongest fiber ever made. "Bid Red Silk" was developed in the same laboratories as dragon silk.
Kim Kraig Thompson, a retired lawyer, invented the protein expression platform in 2002, which would become the basis for Kraig Lab's work with spider silk. [3] He founded Kraig Biocraft Laboratories in April 2006 to develop and commercialize spider silks and other high-performance polymers gene and sequences using platform technology in combination with genetic engineering concepts.
Spider silk is ideal for synthesizing medical skin grafts or ligament implants because it is one of the strongest known natural fibers and triggers little immune response in animals. Spider silk may also make fine sutures for stitching nerves or eyes to heal with little scarring. Medical uses of spider silk have been introduced previously.
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