Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Spider webs

Damage control

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Materials

View current issue Submit your manuscript

A study reveals that spider orb webs fail in a nonlinear fashion, owing to the hierarchical organization of the silk proteins. The discovery may serve as inspiration for engineers for the design of aerial, light-weight, robust architectures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1: Species-specific mechanical behaviour of silk fibres under tensile loading.

References

  1. Cranford, S. W., Tarakanova, A., Pugno, N. M. & Buehler, M. J. Nature 482, 72–76 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Lin, L. H., Edmonds, D. T. & Vollrath, F. Nature 373, 146–148 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Omenetto, F. G. & Kaplan, D. L. Science 329, 528–531 ( 2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Altman, G. H. & Horan, R. L. in An Introduction to Biomaterials (eds Guelcher, S. A. & Hollinger, J. O.) 499–524 (CRC, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Shao, Z. Z. & Vollrath, F. Nature 418, 741 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, F., Porter, D. & Vollrath, F. Phys. Rev. E 82, 041911 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fiorenzo G. Omenetto and David L. Kaplan are in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA,

    Fiorenzo G. Omenetto & David L. Kaplan

Authors
  1. Fiorenzo G. Omenetto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David L. Kaplan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fiorenzo G. Omenetto or David L. Kaplan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Omenetto, F., Kaplan, D. Damage control. Nature Mater 11, 273–274 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3291

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3291

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation