Spider-Worms May Be The Next Best Thing

Silk has been bartered in many cultures around the globe for thousands of years: the cool fabric has always been associated with luxurious clothes fit for royalty. The luxurious threads have been prized, but it wasn't until recently that Chinese scientists found a way to give it new properties.

According to The Daily Mail UK, researchers were able to make silkworms - the insects responsible for giving the threads - spin "super silk," which is basically a tougher, more durable, and more conductive than normal silk threads by feeding the said silkwormswith carbon nanotubes and graphene, opening up to a more vast array of possibilities not only for fabrics, but for medical implants and more.

Textile manufacturers have frequently tweaked the properties of silk fibers by adding dyes and antimicrobial components, but the team from Tsinghua University went one step further, finding that the larvae diet that had been fortified with nanomaterials and graphene enabled the larvae to reinforce their own threads.

This reinforced silk gives silkworms abilities that of Spier-Man's: their silk is said to be stronger and can withstand 50 percent more stress before breaking, as noted by Scientific American. What's even better is that after heating the fibers in high temperatures, the threads were found to be able to conduct electric currents.

It is unclear how the said nanocarbons are incorporated in the silk through animal digestion, but one thing is clear: the threads have a lot of potential. Team leader Yingying Zhang, for instance, said that the threads have the potential to be used as sensors or for medical implants.

The team explained their research on Nano Letters, noting that "The successful generation of these [silks] by...feeding is expected to open up possibilities for the large-scale production of high-strength silk fibers."

Graphene, which is a layer of carbon atoms bound in a hexagonal network, promises to revolutionize semiconductor, sensor, and display technology, as well as lead to breakthroughs in fundamental quantum physics. Scientists believe that it could be used to make transparent conducting materials and biomedical sensors, as well as light but strong aircrafts on the future. It is also incredibly strong: around 200 times stronger than structural steel.