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Spider silk structure: crystalline beta-sheets separated by amorphous linkages. Silks have a hierarchical structure. The primary structure is the amino acid sequence of its proteins (), mainly consisting of highly repetitive glycine and alanine blocks, [4] [5] which is why silks are often referred to as a block co-polymer.
The spider silk has a greater tensile strength than steel, and the material is even strong enough to stop a bullet. In terms of everyday usage, spider silk could be a huge game changer when it ...
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.
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]
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Spider web strands have been used for crosshairs or reticles in telescopes. [28] Development of technologies to mass-produce spider silk has led to the manufacturing of prototype military protection, wound dressings and other medical devices, and consumer goods. [29] [30] [31] Spider webs can be used as a single step catalyst to make ...
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Dragon silk is far more flexible than Kevlar (the material used by US Army to develop body armor). Its flexibility is 38% higher than normal spider silk and is noticeably more flexible than the "Monster silk" from the same laboratory. In percentage, Kevlar's flexibility is 3% and dragon silk's flexibility is 30% to 40%.