Unlike a mountain climber swinging from a rope, a spider suspended from its silk thread hardly ever twists. Although the flexibility and strength of a spider’s dragline outperforms the best synthetic ...

Silkworm cocoons are soaked in hot water to loosen the outer sericin layer, then multiple filaments are reeled together ...

Dan Widmaier is not really a fashion guy — "by any stretch of the imagination," he clarifies — but that hasn't stopped the chemist from taking on the apparel industry. His company, Bolt Threads, has ...

Imagine a sweater that powers electronics to monitor your health or charge your mobile phone while running. This development faces challenges because of the lack of materials that both conduct ...

Spider silk is among the strongest and toughest materials in the natural world, as strong as some steel alloys with a toughness even greater than bulletproof Kevlar. Spider silk's unmatched ...

A hat made from Rambouillet wool is a perfectly nice hat. The fiber, shorn from a Rambouillet sheep, is fine and soft. Not at all scratchy. “They call it the American merino,” says Dan Widmaier, the ...

For years, materials scientists have been trying to figure out a way to give consumers broad access to the benefits of spider silk. As a naturally occurring supermaterial, spider silk is five times ...

With exceptional skills and deft hands, a group of youth masterfully weaves the cover "Kiswa" of the holy Kaaba using threads ...

is a freelance science journalist, podcast host, comics artist, and TV host. There’s a spider in Britain that’s a tad unusual. Instead of spinning “thick” silk threads (in this case, thick means ...