(Nanowerk Spotlight) Protein fibers such as collagen fibers, hairs, and silks, are fundamental building blocks of life. They play an essential role in motility, elasticity, scaffolding, stabilization ...

Scanning electron microscopy images of fibers from engineered spider silk. To validate their computational findings, the Northwestern team used spectroscopy techniques to examine how the protein ...

Silk is a naturally occurring fiber that silkworms use to make their protective cocoons. Most silk is produced for the luxury textiles market, although it has medical applications as well. This ...

Epson and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) have succeeded in developing new regenerated cellulose fiber with a silk-like sheen from waste cotton fabric through a new ...

Spider silk is stronger than steel by weight and as stretchy as rubber. Scientists want to understand how spiders spin their silk so they can make artificial versions of the gossamer threads that are ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – New research has demonstrated how the nano-architecture of a silkworm’s fiber causes “Anderson localization of light,” a discovery that could lead to various innovations and a ...

Pound for pound, spider silk is among the strongest known materials. Unfortunately, though, farming spiders for their silk is highly impractical. While some researchers are pursuing synthetic spider ...

Engineers can make a material that is stiffer than the real thing. Starting with silk produced by silkworms, breaking it down chemically, and then reassembling it, the new material can be shaped into ...