Press releases
Please quote Nature Materials as the source of these items.
October 2006
The bottom line for silk
Remarkable similarities between the flow behaviour of silkworm and spider silks are revealed in a study to be published in the November issue of Nature Materials. This is surprising because these silks evolved to have different functions and their protein compositions and mechanical properties are quite distinct.
Fritz Vollrath and colleagues' characterization study is the first to compare directly the native silk feedstock of two different animal species. The authors note that both feedstocks have the typical flow behaviour of a standard polymer melt, which is important because it means that the melt-flow theory developed for polymers also applies to silk.
Spider silk, in particular, has mechanical properties that outperform most industrial fibres but it defies all attempts at reproduction. Now this improved understanding of the flow characteristics of native silk feedstock may take us a step closer to translating natural spinning to artificial silk production.
