Researchers took the imaginary scenes from Spider-Man seriously and created the first web-slinging technology in which a fluid material can shoot from a needle, immediately solidify as a string, and adhere to and lift objects.
The stream of liquid silk quickly turns to a strong fiber that sticks to and lifts objects
Of course, nature is the original inspiration for deploying fibers of silk into tethers, webs, and cocoons. Spiders, ants, wasps, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and even flies can produce silk at some point in their lifecycle.
The accidental discovery overcame several engineering challenges to replicating spider threads. Silk fibroin solutions can slowly form a semi-solid hydrogel over a period of hours when exposed to organic solvents like ethanol or acetone, but the presence of dopamine, which is used in making the adhesives, allowed the solidification process to occur almost immediately.
The device can shoot fibers that can pick up objects over 80 times their own weight under various conditions. The researchers demonstrated this by picking up a cocoon, a steel bolt, a laboratory tube floating on water, a scalpel partially buried in sand, and a wood block from a distance of about 12 centimeters.
"As scientists and engineers, we navigate the boundary between imagination and practice. That's where all the magic happens," said Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts University and director of the Silklab."We can be inspired by nature. We can be inspired by comics and science fiction. In this case, we wanted to reverse engineer our silk material to behave the way nature originally designed it, and comic book writers imagined it.
Textiles And Clothing Nature Of Water Spintronics Engineering And Construction Wearable Technology Engineering Civil Engineering
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