For decades, spider webs have been the focus of scientists' search for the secret that makes them powerful and flexible at the same time, but they seem to have recently solved the mystery.
A study of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, published Monday, revealed the basic building blocks of the fiber of the net in the black widow spider known as Latrodicts Hysbiros.
The researchers pointed to the presence of blocks of protein aggregated in a complex form has not been discovered before, and the diameter of the assembly of which 200 nanometers, the millimeter is one million nanometers.
When spiders press the spindles in the back of the abdomen to produce silk, the threads are mixed with protein and produce very strong fibers, the Washington Post reported.
"Spider filaments are better than all known polymers in terms of their ore properties, they are completely biodegradable and can replace plastic," said researcher Gregory Holland of the University of San Diego.
Scientists had previously discovered that spider spiders had a tremendous power, more than Kevlar fibers, which made bulletproof jackets.
