Scientists at Tufts University have made Spider-Man’s web-slinging superpower a reality. While still in development, the technology allows a user to shoot liquid silk and pick up objects 80 times its weight.
This is the first time that researchers have created such technology and it happened by pure accident.
While working on making extremely strong adhesives from silk fibroin and cleaning his glassware, Marco Lo Presti, a research assistant professor at Tufts, noticed a material similar to a spider’s web forming. It was already known that silk fibroin solutions can create a semi-solid hydrogel over time when exposed to acetone or ethanol. However, the dopamine in the adhesive made this process almost instantaneous by rapidly removing the water from the silk.
Armed with coaxial needles, the scientists gained a Spider-Man-like web-slinging superpower, shooting the chitosan-induced silk solution to catch and lift steel bolts, laboratory tubes, scalpels, and wood blocks. Chitosan, a part of the insect exoskeleton, increased the tensile strength by up to 200 times.
Contrary to the well-known comic book hero, real spiders cannot shoot their webs. Instead, they spin the material out of their gland and attach it to the surface to construct them. Therefore, this work is “really a superhero-inspired material,” Lo Presti said.
Despite this new discovery, the science still has a long way to go. Real spider silk is about 1,000 times stronger than the one used by Tuft researchers.
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