What Makes Spider Webs Tough As Steel

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What Makes Spider Webs Tough As Steel

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 1, 2012 @04:33PM from the it's-all-how-you-spin-it dept.

sciencehabit writes "A new analysis reveals the intricacies of spider web design, showing how the unique properties of its silk turn webs into flexible yet strong traps. Computer simulations reveal that heavy forces spread over the entire net rather than stay local. Real spider silk can be either stretchy or stiff at different times, which produces threads that flex and then snap in just the right way to avoid wrecking nearby spokes."

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Diamond by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 17:10 · Score: 3, Funny

I think all this research is just skirting around the "real" material engineering question: What makes diamonds the hardest metal?
1. Re:Diamond by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 17:23 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  ... the hardest metal?
  /facepalm
2. Re:Diamond by Yaotzin · 2012-02-01 17:35 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I always thought Dragonforce was the hardest metal known to man.
  
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3. Re:Diamond by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 18:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  chemistry is hard
4. Re:Diamond by narcc · 2012-02-01 20:54 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  What about chuck norris? He's plenty hard!
  He's tough all right, but he's only hard when he's around Ted Haggard.
  
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  Required reading for internet skeptics
5. Re:Diamond by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 23:55 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Okay, okay -- if you're going to be that picky: One of the hardest metals.
Re:Spiders have always fascinated me by stuckinarut · 2012-02-01 17:20 · Score: 4, Funny

Were the spiders on drugs too?
Re:Smack yourself with steel and then a spider web by BasilBrush · 2012-02-01 18:03 · Score: 3, Funny

Steel is really soft. They make wool out of it.
Re:Smack yourself with steel and then a spider web by mtm_king · 2012-02-01 19:32 · Score: 3, Funny

Good point. But back at you.... When is the last time you "hit your head" on a 1/4 inch plate of spider web.

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What Makes Spider Webs Tough As Steel by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-01 20:26 · Score: 2, Funny

Spiders.
Next!