How small is "small?" Spider silk nanofibrils are just a few molecular layers thick, equivalent to approximately one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. They're invisible to the naked eye and cannot be seen under an ordinary microscope.
At the College of William & Mary, applied science doctoral candidate Jake Silliman recently measured the strength and stretchability of these miniscule nanofibrils, a feat that his advisor, long term researcher of spider silk VMEC Professor Hannes Schniepp, had previously considered nearly impossible.
The findings are published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
"Other people have tried," Schniepp said. "Most gave up, but Jake didn't, and he succeeded. If you understand a little bit about what it takes to do what he did, it's really impressive. It's actually kind of crazy to think that it's even possible."
Drag line spider silk is one of the marvels of nature.
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