Spider silk is the strongest known biological material known to man. This means that many bugs and animals, much heavier than the spiders themselves, can get caught up in the webs.. Certain large orb-weaving spiders of the genus Nephila create webs that are about 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide and have been observed catching and eating the bats of Costa Rica.

The chemistry of spider webs has always intrigued scientists and now we finally understand it (sort of). Spider silk is a protein fiber made of a combination of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and will bond together in a specific order to make a functional biopolymer. There are 20 of these building blocks and they ...

Funnel-web spiders, scientifically known as Agelenidae, are a family of spiders characterized by their distinctive funnel-shaped webs. The name "funnel web" is derived from the shape of their webs, which often resemble miniature funnels. Several subspecies of these spiders exist, each adapted to different environments.

We explore the fascinating science behind spider webs and how these incredible creatures build their perfect homes. From the powerful silk produced in their ...

Spider silk nanofibrils are just a few molecular layers thick, equivalent to approximately one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. ... While webs of some spiders capture prey by way of glue drops spaced regularly along strands, cribellate strands like those spun by the southern house spider ensnare prey in the mesh by way of ...

Spider web strands may seem simple to the casual observer, but closer inspection reveals that they're complex structures of interwoven components. Schniepp explained that there are approximately ...

Funnel weaver spiders, also known as grass spiders, are marvelous natural web architects. Typically found in late summer, these arachnids weave distinctive webs close to the ground. Unlike the ...

This forms the silk for webs. The climate and environment a spider lives in determines the type of silk it produces, where it will build its web and the type of web it will build. The most common web is the wheel shaped web. The spider begins by building a frame. It creates four sides to the web and then two diagonal lines from the four corners.

Mike Silver. Every kid who has read a comic book or watched a Spider-Man movie has tried to imagine what it would be like to shoot a web from their wrist, fly over streets, and pin down villains. Researchers at Tufts University took those imaginary scenes seriously and created the first web-slinging technology in which a fluid material can ...