A fact only a true Spider Man fan must be aware of...

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Are science talks your cup of tea? Or, are you a fan of Spider-Man? If you fit in any one of these, then this blog post is just for you.
If Spider Man's web is anything like spider silk, it's surprisingly realistic! Yes, you heard it right.

One question must be intriguing us quite a long time as to why Peter Parker preferred spider silk to any other material. He would have chosen any other material over spider silk but chose spider silk for webbing. It was indeed a smart choice.

When Spider-Man was making his own web in the chemistry lab in his high school, he tried using saliva of a spider. Spider silk is a protein fibre which is stronger than steel.

A dragline silk's tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade steel alloy and about half as strong as aramid filament such as Twaron or Kevlar, which is used for making bulletproof cloth. In 2008, a wood bases nanofiber achieved tensile stiffness eight times greater and with higher tensile strength than spider silk.

Every spider and its type of silk have a set of mechanical properties optimised for their biological functions. One of the main reasons for the usage of spider silk by spiders is to catch its prey. 
Dragline silk shows a peculiar combination of high tensile strength and ductility. This helps the silk fibre to absorb more energy before breaking.

As spider silk mainly consists of protein, it has a density of 1/6th of the density of steel (1.3 g/cm3). Spider silks are extremely ductile, with some ability to stretch up to 5 times their relaxed length without breaking. 

With web-shooters attached to the wrist, the original Spider-Man could swing from buildings and stop moving trains. It turns out that the super-strength ability of these webs isn’t so far from the truth: Scientists can now create artificial spider silk fibres that are stronger than steel. Heralded as a material of the future, researchers are now experimenting with spider silk as a way to deliver antibiotics and develop artificial muscle technology.
Moreover, Peter Parker made this concoction similar to carbon nanotubes to add extra strength and flexibility to his webbing. This was an amazing thing Peter Parker had made. This has also inspired scientists all around the world to make this possible.
Spider silk would no longer be a wonder in the future.

So do you have any other material which is stronger than spider silk or any other material that exists today? Drop it in the comment section.


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