Spider toast is both strong and tough and important mechanism to crack

Science and Technology Daily Beijing, November 8 (Intern reporter Long Yun) Spider silk why both strength and toughness? Japanese scientists in the laboratory used chemical tools to simulate the process of spider silk from the spitting organs in an orderly manner, decrypting the mechanism behind this natural phenomenon, providing a theoretical basis for humans to simulate spider vomiting process, and in the future to create super-tough sustainable materials. The study was published in the recently published journal Science Advances.
spider silk is initially formed in the form of a liquid, but within a second, this viscous liquid-like protein changes. When leaving the spider's body, a substance called spider silk protein folds itself and interweaves itself to create a highly organized structure without any external force guidance.
s self-assembly process produces materials with unique properties," said Ali Ma, a structural biologist and biochemist at the Center for Sustainable Resource Science at the Japan Institute of Science and Chemistry. For
, scientists have been trying to simulate spider silk in the hope of creating materials that are super tough and sustainable to use. To do this, they have been studying what chemical triggers turn liquid stored in the silk glands into silk.
, the researchers proposed a new method that used chemical tools in the lab to simulate the orderly spewing of silk from the spitting organ. They found that a key step in spitting was for spiders to separate the spider protein from the water buffer encased in the silk glands , a step that would make the protein highly concentrated;
, an expert at Sweden's Karolinska Institute who was not involved in the experiment, said spider silk had to undergo metamorphosis when leaving the spider's body. When spider silk proteins are still in the glands, they must be suspended in a "very high concentration" of liquid, almost as sticky as toothpaste.
researchers also found that dehydration of liquid-like spider proteins during movement is a prerequisite for this self-assembly. Further research shows that timing and efficiency are key elements of the vomit process. If the silk hardens too early, it will clog the spider's glands;
paper replaces real spiders with simplified laboratory models. Angela Alicia-Serrano, a spider silk researcher at the University of Akron who was not involved in the study, said the meaningful study gives a glimpse into the important mechanisms and processes behind spider vomit. "We've seen a lot of the process start and end, but we don't see the important process between the two."