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Science 5 January 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5245, pp. 39 - 40
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5245.39
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Perspectives

David A. Tirrell

The dragline silk spun by spiders exhibits unusual tensile strength and the energy required to break it can be higher than that of Kevlar. In his Perspective, Tirrell comments on a research report in the same issue by Simmons et al. (p. 84) that elucidates some of the structural properties that give spider silk its impressive characteristics.

The author is in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA. E-mail: tirrell@polysci.umass.edu.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Design of Superior Spider Silk: From Nanostructure to Mechanical Properties.
N. Du, X. Y. Liu, J. Narayanan, L. Li, M. L. M. Lim, and D. Li (2006)
Biophys. J. 91, 4528-4535
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Segmented nanofibers of spider dragline silk: Atomic force microscopy and single-molecule force spectroscopy.
E. Oroudjev, J. Soares, S. Arcidiacono, J. B. Thompson, S. A. Fossey, and H. G. Hansma (2002)
PNAS 99, 6460-6465
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)