When spiders spin their webs, they use their hind legs to pull silk threads from their spinnerets. This pulling action doesn't just help the spider release the silk, it's also a crucial step in ...

Spiders make their webs from silk, a natural fibre made of protein. Not only does spider silk combine the useful properties of high tensile strength and extensibility, it can be beautiful in its own ...

By simulating spider silk in a computational model, the team discovered the stretching process aligns the protein chains within the fibers and increases the number of bonds between those chains ...