Future of Engineering
Friday, February 15, 2008
Spider Silk - Protein Engineering a Humble Spider to Nanotechnology Material Design
Protein engineering - from the humble spider to the nanotechnology future of material design
Much has been written about the fascinating properties of spider silk, a biopolymer that is stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber. The silken threads possess a unique combination of mechanical properties: strength (its tensile strength is about five times as strong a steel of the same density), extensibility (up to 30%) and toughness (its ability to absorb a large amount of energy without breaking). Of course this begs the obvious question: How is it possible that spider silk - produced by little creatures that evolved about 400 million years ago - can be as strong as steel - a modern alloy that plays a critical role in our infrastructure and which still attracts considerable R&D investments in its production technology?
New analysis performed at MIT’s Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics shows that the intriguing strength of spider silk may be made possible by precisely controlling the number and the geometry of H-bonds at a characteristic length scale. The physical concept is that by making many small elements work together cooperatively, the weaknesses of the individual components can be overcome. All this must happen at the nanoscale in order to be effective.
Full story here
Much has been written about the fascinating properties of spider silk, a biopolymer that is stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber. The silken threads possess a unique combination of mechanical properties: strength (its tensile strength is about five times as strong a steel of the same density), extensibility (up to 30%) and toughness (its ability to absorb a large amount of energy without breaking). Of course this begs the obvious question: How is it possible that spider silk - produced by little creatures that evolved about 400 million years ago - can be as strong as steel - a modern alloy that plays a critical role in our infrastructure and which still attracts considerable R&D investments in its production technology?
New analysis performed at MIT’s Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics shows that the intriguing strength of spider silk may be made possible by precisely controlling the number and the geometry of H-bonds at a characteristic length scale. The physical concept is that by making many small elements work together cooperatively, the weaknesses of the individual components can be overcome. All this must happen at the nanoscale in order to be effective.
Full story here
Labels: Material-Sciences
PermaLink - Spider Silk - Protein Engineering a Humble Spider to Nanotechnology Material Design posted by Ecacofonix : 7:08 AM
