I'm really not a spider fan and of course this time of year there are quite a few of the beasts about however, despite my dislike of the eight legged critter I do very much appreciate their web construction capabilities.
I had never actually watched a spider spin and create it's cobweb until this week and as it was the otherside of the window I could observe the act from a safe distance, and it really was quite an incredible thing.
After this observation I did a bit of research and came across a few interesting facts about spiders and their webs, did you know after a time the silk will lose its stickiness and thus become inefficient at capturing prey and then it is common for spiders to eat their own web daily (eeeewwwww) this recoups some of the energy used in spinning. The silk proteins are thus recycled! Who would have known spiders are so green!
The tensile strength of spider silk is greater than the same weight of steel and has much greater elasticity. Its microstructure is under investigation for potential applications in industry, including bullet-proof vests and artificial tendons (thanks Wikipedia).
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