HackiNews

72 points | by ibobev | 9 Comments

Ouman

We've gotten very good at designing materials, but nature still has a few manufacturing tricks we haven't figured out
rramadass

Also see Veritasium's excellent episode, Is Spider Web really stronger than Steel? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4p2oalmRY
jdw64
Would it be uneconomical to make clothes from spider silk? But I'm curious what kind of spider Spider Man's web comes from.
- dcminter
  
  Define economical :)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Spider_Silk_Cape
- the__alchemist
  This article goes into it... Need 1e6 spiders in 1e6 boxes.
  - Dylan16807
    
    So it's probably 100-1000x as expensive as silk? That's doable.
    
    the__alchemist
    
    In addition to the sibling post, silkworms don't need individual living quarters.
    
    zardo
    
    Silk worms make a cocoon, for a spider you would need individually "silk" each one every few days.
- jibalt
  
  > what kind of spider Spider Man's web comes from
  Look it up ... there isn't one.