There’s a spider in Britain that’s a tad unusual. Instead of spinning “thick” silk threads (in this case, thick means several micrometers), the garden center spider can spin tiny nano-scale threads ...

Imagine a sweater that powers electronics to monitor your health or charge your mobile phone while running. This development faces challenges because of the lack of materials that both conduct ...

Dan Widmaier is not really a fashion guy — "by any stretch of the imagination," he clarifies — but that hasn't stopped the chemist from taking on the apparel industry. His company, Bolt Threads, has ...

A hat made from Rambouillet wool is a perfectly nice hat. The fiber, shorn from a Rambouillet sheep, is fine and soft. Not at all scratchy. “They call it the American merino,” says Dan Widmaier, the ...

The caterpillars that spin commercial silk can make much tougher or more elastic threads, depending on how fast they’re forced to spin. If this research finding is translated into a marketable process ...

It has five times the tensile strength of steel and is stronger than even the best currently available synthetic fibers: Spider thread. Scientists have now succeeded in unveiling a further secret of ...

How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? Researchers in Sweden can now explain this process. How can a tiny ...