Stanford University Investigates Mystery of Spider Silk

Recent investigations at Stanford University have helped shed light on the mysteries of spider silk.

A material that's known for its strength and flexibility, it is five times stronger than steel and can expand nearly a third greater than its original length. It also has the capability to then return to its original elasticity.

On January 27, the study was described in the journal Nature Materials by post-doctoral scholar Kristie Koski. She is a researcher in the Yi Cui Group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Standford University and the first author of the study, with work from the study performed when she was a post-doc under Professor Jeff Yarger at Arizona State University. With the help of a spectroscopy technique, researchers were able to non-destructively examine the mechanical properties of an intact, pristine spider web, just as the spider began to conceive its web.

The elasticity of the spider's silk is described by five elastic constants that determine how the web will react to any possible combination of forces, such as pulling, twisting or shearing in any direction. Earlier studies, according to Koski, have only measured two of the five constants and only in isolated sections of the web and not an entire web.

Koski said she is hoping to complete other studies that will understand the web in greater depth.

 "My goal is to study the nanostructure of silk to understand not just how spider silk behaves as it does, but also why it behaves in such remarkable ways in hopes of someday creating better man-made fibers," said Koski.