• Question: what would be the best material for spiderman webs

    Asked by anon-243887 to Mick on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Michael Schubert

      Michael Schubert answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      Believe it or not, actual spider silk is one of the strongest materials in nature! It may not seem that way (after all, you can break a spiderweb with your hand), but that’s because spiders are so small that they only need to spin a very thin thread. Their silk is actually about the same strength as steel, even though it is much lighter and stretchier. It’s even tougher than carbon fiber!
      For a Spider-Man web you make yourself, the best material would be artificial spider silk. Because we know what proteins make up spider silk and how they fit together, we can create our own version of it in a lab – but we can only make small amounts at once (which is fine as long as we have only one Spider-Man). Lots of scientists are working on different ways of making artificial spider silk, so we may soon be able to make more – and then everyone can try their hand at web-slinging!

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