Nychos has a fascination with the insides of animals because of his upbringing in a traditional Viennese hunting family. Most of his work incorporates the death and dissection he experienced on a daily basis growing up.
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From folklore to children’s stories, it seems humans have always been fas
cinated with spider silk, the diverse material produced in abundance, at will from the body of nearly all species of spider. Studying the biomechanics of the spinnerets and the chemicals that combine to produce various textures of silk at a molecular level has allowed scientists a new perspective on efficiency and biosynthesis.
The golden orb-weaver spider (Nephila clavipes) produces so much silk everyday it has become the most studied spider in the world, and was even included in a trip to the International Space Station in a special terrarium. Golden Orb-Weaver silk is 30 times thinner than your average human hair. If Spider-man were to produce a proportionate thickness of the same material the line would likely hold, maybe even hold the weight of two adult humans(Valigra, 1999.)
It’s hard to find a material as strong while still retaining the flexibility and elasticity of spider silk. Maybe impossible. The dragline of the average spider silk is five times more durable than the Kevlar used in bullet-proof vests(Benyus, 2002, p. 132), plus, it’s lighter and breathes better. Kevlar is a petroleum product and requires pressurized vats of intensely hot sulfuric acid (Benyus, 2002, p.135; 2001). Biologically-inspired materials might be drastically more efficient on energy costs to create. Oil-based synthetic molecules often create dangerous bi-products which are hazardous to handle, expensive to store and virtually impossible to dispose. Spiders create superior materials with a very small amount of energy, heat or byproducts. (Benyus, 2001). NASA studies found that Gold Orb Spider spinneret systems can be so efficient they include reusing spider silk eaten and ingested after use.
Electron-microscope imaging shows the variety of textures a single spider can produce from its body.
Spider silk would be so incredibly useful it might not even be possible to anticipate the range of products it might inspire. Most materials knows to man are either elastic or have a high tensile strength but some pider silks fall in a rare category of scoring high in both areas (Benyus, 2001). Spider silk can stretch 40 percent longer than its relaxed state without losing any of it’s shape when it returns. Even the stretchiest nylon can’t perform that way (Benyus, 2002, p.132; 2001). Dupont materials compared silk to current steel cables used on bridges and standing structures worldwide and found dragline spider silk strong enough to be used as the quick-stop brake system on a jet in flight on an aircraft carrier (Valigra, 1999), at a fourth of the thickness of steel cables.
“spider silk is so strong and resilient that on the human scale, a web resembling a fishing net could catch a passenger plane in flight. If you test our strongest steel wire against comparable diameter silk they would have a similar breaking point. But if confronted with multiple pressures, such as gale-force winds, the silk can stretch as well; something steel cannot do” (Benyus, 2001, 2002).
Spiders evolved the ability to spin a web strong and versatile enough to allow it to run across, pull and twist into position and manipulate with its many legs in order to trap prey, set complicated tricks into actio
n and run along without becoming entangled. The elasticity and strength of the web are partly why it is so easy for another species to become ensnared. Researchers who have taken the time to examine closely have realized in awe the potential for application in spaceflight, industrial, commercial and even fashion industries.
Spider silk also shows incredible tolerance for colder temperatures without becoming brittle or falling apart. Spiders are able to hide underground or near the warm trunk of a tree and return to their outdoor webs later to repair and rebuild what is largely left intact. These cold-tolerant properties lend superior promise to its potential as aan advanced suitable for bridge cables, as well as lightweight parachute lines for outdoor climbing in military and camping equipment. Scientists have been hyping up its many 
potential medical applications such as sutures and replacement ligaments (Benyus, 2001) and as a durable substance to fabricate clothing and shoes (made of “natural fibers”) and synthetic moldable solid material that can create rust-free panels and hyper durable car bumpers. (Lipkin, R., 1996).
“if we want to manufacture something that’s at least as good as spider silk, we have to duplicate the processing regime that spiders use” Christopher Viney, early biomimetic proponent (Benyus, 2002, pp. 135-6).
Take a look at the fascinating process as a spider creates silk and you will find something that more closely resembles human technology than animal biology. Spiders have evolved to create something highly specialized without tools or any sort of special diet requirements to fuel autosynthesis of silk. Spider silk is formed out of liquid proteins within the spider’s abdomen. Several complex chemicals in a cocktail travel through the duct of a narrow gland. The substance is squeezed out in a very controlled manner through any combination of six nozzles called spinnerets. the protein collected from eating insects and various vegetable matters “emerges an insoluble, nearly waterproof, highly ordered fiber” (Benyus 2001).
Most spiders can produce a few different types of of silks. They can make threads that can be used to build structures, a strong dragline, or an elastic cable for repelling and reusing while creating the foundation for a web. They can make a sticky, wet line that clings to itself and most other surfaces for fastening strong structures, making cocoons and trapping prey. There is much to be learned because all of human scientific knowledge on the subject still comes from a handful of studies of only fifteen or more spiders to date. There are 40,000 spider species, most of which we know almost nothing about. There might be even better silk from some species.
“But yes there is probably a tougher, stronger, stiffer fiber being produced right this minute by a spider we know nothing about. A spider whose habitat may be going up in smoke” Viney (Benyus, 2002, pp.138-40).
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Jonathan Howard
Jonathan is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY |
It can be defensive but the function of spider venom is often to incapacitate or kill prey. University of Queensland academics released their findings in The British Journal of Pharmacology, after they isolated seven unique peptides found in certain spider venoms that can block the molecules that allow pain-sensitive nerve pathways to communicate with the brain. One of the pepetides originated in the physiology of a Borneo orange-fringed tarantula. That peptide possessed the correct chemical structure, combined with a stability and effectiveness to become a non-opiate painkiller.
15% of all adults are in chronic pain, according a study published in 2012 Journal of Pain. Most readers are already aware of the danger of addiction and lagging effetiveness of opiate drugs like morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone. The medical community is hungry for a change in available medications. Opiates are all derivatives or inspired by opium plants which have been tried and tested for centuries. Venomous spiders are difficult to study but the motivation for new drugs has loosened funding with the help of promising finds like this one.
“Spider venom acts in a different way to standard painkillers,” ~ Dr. Jennifer Smith, research officer @ University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.
While cessation from pain might in itself create an addictive reaction, this venom is promising, according to Dr. Smith, because it blocks the channel through which the pain would even reach the brain. Opiates merely block the widespread opioid receptors in actual brain cells, deep within and in the surrounding nerve tissue of the brain itself.
What’s the mechanism of action for this spider-drug? Some people are born with a rare genetic defect that renders them unable to feel pain. Geneticists identified the human gene responsible, known as SCN9A. Dr. Smith hopes the peptide will enable the cells of a human without the defect to shut down part of the DNA that manifests this immunity to pain.
There could be other breakthroughs in medicine and chemistry. The findings are awesome in the Australian project but those researchers only documented findings of roughly 200 out of 45,000 known species of spider. Out of those 200, 40% contained peptides that interacted with the way pain channels communicate. The next step would be to test the painkillers on animals.
“We’ve got a massive library of different venoms from different spider species and we’re branching out into other arachnids: scorpions, centipedes and even assassin bugs,” said Dr. Smith.
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Jonathan Howard
Jonathan is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY |
There is some major news going on when it comes to the Oakblue butterfly and the ant. This bulletin could potentially save their lives (the butterfly’s, not the ant’s of course). The life-saving strategy involves the art of deception – a notion we are all, whether we like to admit it or not, quite masters at. It was the famous poet, Walter Scott who wrote in one of his most popular pieces, Marmion:
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!”
While this quote may be more apt for spiders, we’ll use it here all the same – if that flies with you, of course.
The deceptive strategies are due to a hodgepodge of chemical tactics to dupe ants and steer clear of their attack. Particular plants have a mutualistic association with ants and are generally well-protected from herbivore attacks by ants. However, larvae of the Oakblue butterflies survive and develop on specific plants, Macaranga, or the hosting ant-plant species and evade being ambushed by the ants residing on that plant. The authors of this study theorized that butterfly larvae may chemically camouflage themselves in order to be welcomed by the plant-ants on their host foliage, and hence would be shunned other plant-ant species living on plants which are not their regular host species.
“Ant” it a bit confusing? I agree. To comprehend the whole process, let’s take a look at what the scientists did. They collected butterfly larvae for three Arhopala species native to Malaysia, followed by examining both the behavioral and chemical responses of the plant-ant species to the exploratory introduction of butterfly larvae along with fake larvae treated with cuticular hydrocarbon extract (chemicals that play an important role in insect communication), to the leaves of the Macaranga species.
So what do these experiments ultimately reveal? Just this: that despite the fact that the reactions of the plant-ants to the butterfly larvae varied considerably (reactions which proved contingent upon the species of the butterfly) assailment on the normal plant host were rare. In chemist- or lepidopderist-language, of the three butterfly variations, A. dajagaka matched well with the host plant-ants, A amphimuta did not match, and A. zylda lacked hydrocarbons.
Behaviorally, both the larvae and dummies coated with the cuticular chemicals of A. dajagaka were well attended by both host and non-host plants while A. amphimuta were often blitzed by host and non-host plant-ants, and all ants turned a blind eye to the A. zylda species. All-in-all, this study’s researchers hypothesize that variations exist in the chemical schemes deployed by gossamer-winged butterflies which ultimately allow them to evade ant ambushes and be welcomed by plant-ant colonies.
For many of us out there spiders are not something that we deem cute or cuddly, no matter how spider lovers might describe them. In fact, the bigger the spider the creepier they are. Now we all know that the scientific name for the fear of spiders is Arachnophobia, which is something so common Hollywood has created several movies based on people’s fear of spiders. But, are all spiders really that bad?
Peacock spiders, which get their name from their black, red, and blue hindquarters, as well as their intricate mating rituals, might just be enough to make you change your mind, especially when you hear more about the Sparklemuffin spider. And, honestly with a name like that how can you be afraid of it?
The Sparklemuffin spider is one of two new spiders to be discovered in Southeast Queensland. Skeletorus was the second new species to be discovered by Madeline Girard, a graduate student from the University of California, Berkeley, and her friend.
Jurgen Otto, who is a well-respected entomologist as well as spider photographer, was not very excited when he first heard about Sparklemuffin. From what he told, Live Science Sparklemuffin had a very strong resemblance to other peacock spiders. But, Sparklemuffin eventually won him over. “It was in particular its docile nature and soft teddy bearlike appearance that really charmed me,” he said.
Now if Sparklemuffin is deemed cute, just what until you read more about Skeletorus. This one is anything but cute and actually got its name because of the white markings on its black body. To Girard these white markings looked like a skeleton. While Sparklemuffin might resemble other peacock spiders, Skeletorus certainly doesn’t. With how different Skeletorus is, it makes scientists wonder if there aren’t more peacock spiders left out there to discover.
