This is SO cool. I'm going to start adding nanotubes to my morning coffee so I can write the unbreakable codez!
Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
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Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#72> exactly how the spiders incorporate carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes into their silk is not clear This confuses me. Surely they must've had some kind of hypothesis for this, or are they just going around spraying all kinds of creatures hoping they gain super-powers?
Well, spiders eat stuff, and poop out magic thread. So change their diet, you change the thread...
Luckily for all those times I've walked face first into a spider's web:
Spider silk != Poop
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#73Just when I'm full up on superhero themes it gets all interesting again.
Peter parker was just your average day Pholcidae spider, until one fateful day when he was exposed to experimental carbon nano-tubes. Now he must decide, will he use his new found super web powers for good, or for personal gain?
I'm just imagining the poor spiders that can't cut down their own webs when they want to re-weave them, or accidentally catch birds.
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#74And Pholcidae are not even the creators of the stronger webs in the world. With about 200.000 different types of spider silk in the planet, is really exciting to dream about what major league players like Nephila or Caerostris could achieve with this stuff.
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#75I just wrote this up myself. The results are remarkable, but the credit seems entirely due to the spiders. Well, not entirely, but the data is so limited! They only got a handful of spiders, from the lab's back yard essentially, and a bunch of them died from nanomaterial exposure, malnutrition, or both after 1 trial! Yet despite the bargain bin trappings, the results are so incredibly cool! The spiders just... incorp…
Is there a word like serendipity that means "found as a joke" instead of "found by a fortunate accident?"
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Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
But how about just natural silk with carbon nanotubes? Sure spidersilk is "the greatest" -- but maybe nano-augmented regular silk is better than, well regular silk? [ed: insert dystopian sci-fi plot of scattered survivors of the nano apocalypse growing bullet proof vests from silk worms found in old industrial (nano)waste sites...]
"Natural silk" aka "silk" comes from silkworms.
Right. I was wondering if silk worms could be made to produce nano-silk if drenched in nanotube-water, like the spiders (or fed leaves dipped in nanotube-water etc).
[ed: I probably should've written "normal" silk, not natural silk...]
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't something I'd be willing to try, for a black widow web...
At Brazil we have a related (and extremely creepy - have you ever seen a spiders swarm?) but harmless species. Yes, one can break its web with the hands, but not without a conscious effort.
So it doesnt just come apart like normal spiderwebs?
I imagine breaking carbon nanotubes with bare hands...
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nice discovery and thank you for sharing it. Concerning the article, there are a lot of superlatives which sometimes makes me wonder whether the author is overenthusiastic and still rational; Therefore a couple of comparions would be welcome for people who didn't study material resistance, e.g. "Such a web can hold a 2kg spade if it happens to hang in your garage". Can it?
I agree, so I asked my material scientist friend. Based on the strand thickness in that microscope image being approximately 8 microns, a single strand can hold about 250g. So a web would probably hold a spade, depending on how well it sticks. Incidentally, if you need a material scientist, OracleCarbon hangs out in IRC in #xkcd on the Foonetic network and is happy to answer stuff like that.
I was actually joking when I thought of a spade, I'm impressed!
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
But how about just natural silk with carbon nanotubes? Sure spidersilk is "the greatest" -- but maybe nano-augmented regular silk is better than, well regular silk? [ed: insert dystopian sci-fi plot of scattered survivors of the nano apocalypse growing bullet proof vests from silk worms found in old industrial (nano)waste sites...]
What do you mean by "natural silk". Where do you think "natural silk" comes from?
I meant silkworm-silk. I wonder if silkworms can be made to make regular silk that's augmented with nanotubes for a similar (relative) increase in strength, with similar easy process (shower silk-worms and their food with water with nanotubes etc).
Re: Spiders Ingest Nanotubes, Then Weave Silk Reinforced with Carbon
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're not the best at making anything. We're pretty good at using things, though.
I'm not sure that's strictly true. I've not yet heard of another species as good as us at making, for example, cars, or computers.
There are some ways we could argue that turning dirt into a car is really just really, really, good using ..