Creepy, Crawly Adaptability: Spider Webs Get Tough and Tougher

When I was much younger, I was afraid of spiders. I suppose that's true of many kids. Some spiders, after all, can kill you. 

It wasn't so much the logical fear that got me, though. No, I was afraid of a movie spider. My brother took great delight in reminding me just how terrifying that giant spider in that B-movie really was. (I think it was a tarantula. I think the movie might have been titled Tarantula.)

To me, the fact that that giant spiders was getting the better of humans for the better part of a two-hour movie was enough to convince me that spiders were smarter than people. (Remember, I'm much younger in this scenario.) All these years later, I remember the movie (vaguely) but don't dwell on the fear (much).

Now comes word that the stuff that spiders spin is itself smart. Imagine the horrors that could descend on the imaginations of a generations of youngsters!

We already know that, irritatingly, spider webs can withstand the kind of gale-force winds and heavy rain that bring down trees and power lines. The strands of the web can come together as one, protecting the spider in its element.

A study in Nature magazine asserts that the silk that makes up a spider's web is extremely adaptable, even under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Throw a rock through a big web (as we kids used to do) and you succeed in ripping apart some of the web, but the remaining strands stretch and then re-form, stronger than ever (again with the nightmare scenario!). Further, the scientists found that removing up to one-tenth of the threads at a spread of locations around an established spider web resulted in the web's ability to carry even more weight (up to 10 percent) than before.

By the way, no arachnids were harmed in the completion of this study. The scientists used computer models and unpopulated natural webs.

The idea is a simple one, really, and it also, assert the scientists behind the study, can have crossover implications for the construction of manmade materials. (Imagine something made out of steel that would work the way a spider web works — giving under certain pressure but able overall to sustain what would otherwise be a crushing blow).

This could be quite exciting, really, for the various construction industries, if the people doing the theorizing and the testing can get past their spider-induced fears. About the only way I could do it would be to substitute Spider-Man for spider in the paperwork. At least that would let me sleep at night.