| STUDY |
Silkworm silk vs. spider silk BY K. M. REESE Silkworm silk can be nearly as strong and flexible as spider silk. Earlier work showed that silk from web-spinning spiders is about three times stronger and more than twice as stretchy as silkworm silk. The authors find, however, that silk extracted directly from silkworms (the caterpillar of the silk moth, Bombyx mori) has properties approaching those of spider silk. The earlier comparisons used silkworm silk obtained in the commercial manner—washing and unwinding it from caterpillars’ cocoons. But silk spooled directly from silk glands has markedly different properties. Slow spooling, they say, makes it as stretchy as spider silk, and fast spooling makes it almost as tough as spider silk The authors find that the mechanical properties of Bombyx silk, like the properties of spider silk, “depend crucially on spinning conditions. ... If we could reel straight from the silkworm, as from spiders, or if larvae could be bred to spin their cocoons faster and more evenly ... then the silkworm would produce fibres that might well give natural and artificially spun spider silks—genetically modified or not—a good run for their money.” |
| UPDATE | 08.02 |
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