Can superhero powers be translated into real life? This is what a recent study published in Advanced Functional Materials hopes to address as a team of researchers from the Tufts University Silklab developed web-slinging fibers like what Spiderman uses in comic books and movies. This study holds the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new methods for grabbing objects in hard-to-reach places with inspiration from both nature and comic book superheroes.
Dr. Marco Lo Presti, who is a research assistant professor at Tufts University and lead author of the study noted that “if you look at nature, you will find that spiders cannot shoot their web. They usually spin the silk out of their gland, physically contact a surface, and draw out the lines to construct their webs. We are demonstrating a way to shoot a fiber from a device, then adhere to and pick up an object from a distance. Rather than presenting this work as a bio-inspired material, it’s really a superhero-inspired material.”
For the study, the researchers developed the fibers from silk moth cocoons and discovered they could not only make it discharge through a needle, but that it also hardens when exposed to ambient air. During the process of enhancing the fibers’ properties, including adhesiveness, elasticity and stiffness, the researchers accidentally stumbled upon the solution when they were cleaning glassware with acetone, as noted by Dr. Lo Presti.
After more tests, they found that dopamine worked as an excellent solvent to harden the fibers almost immediately. More tests improved the tensile strength and adhesiveness of the fibers by 200 times and 19 times, respectively. While these fibers still exhibit 1000 times less strength than natural spider silk, the researchers are confident that further studies will improve upon this design.
“As scientists and engineers, we navigate the boundary between imagination and practice. That’s where all the magic happens,” said Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto, who is the director of the Silklab at Tufts University and a co-author of the study. “We can be inspired by nature. We can be inspired by comics and science fiction. In this case, we wanted to reverse engineer our silk material to behave the way nature originally designed it, and comic book writers imagined it.”
What new discoveries between superhero powers and real-life technology will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Advanced Functional Materials, EurekAlert!