Since years, researchers and scientists have always marveled at the rigidity, strength and stability of spider webs that is even stronger than steel. Silk derived from a spider web is a subject of research for the material scientists and engineers as they discover how pressure or strain applied to a thread of spider web, stiffens the single thread of silk and as pressure builds it evenly spreads across the web in order to ensure that the whole web remains intact or unbroken before it reaches a peak point causing breakage. In this example, despite of the constant pressure applied on a single thread of spider web that eventually breaks it, the web remains intact and unbroken which is a very good example for material scientists and engineers to learn and compare between materials of constructions and machinery and a spider web. The most remarkable feature of a spider web is its ability to remain intact even after any of its thread or silk is damaged or broken. This characteristic is never found in modern scientific creations such as buildings, machines or technology which makes spider webs an innovative and unique science for the researchers.
Spider webs are
naturally occurring materials and structures and according to the opinion of
material scientists and engineers, all materials and structures in their
natural forms show peculiar behavior and characteristics due to their chemical
composition. Every material and structure found in nature in its natural form
exhibits a different shape, size, property and behavior depending on its
chemical composition whether organic or inorganic. Taking spider web as an
example, scientists and material engineers have understood that materials and
their structures can be changes, altered and transformed into new shapes and
designs by way of adding or combining new materials. Spider webs have proved to
be an innovative way of thinking for material engineers and scientists as it
allows them to think form a different perspectives and angles that were never
attempted before. The unique properties and behavior of spider webs compels
material engineers to compare spider webs characteristics and behavior with
that of other materials and structures that we see and experiences in the
world. Spider web acting as an example, material engineers have understood that
new properties of materials can be obtained by adding or combining natural
materials that are superior in quality and characteristics. In the field of
material engineering, materials that are derived from combining or adding two
or more materials are referred to as composites. Just like spider webs, there
are plenty of naturally occurring materials found in nature in their natural
forms such as diamonds, stones, sand, timber, cotton, marbles etc. Just like
the chemical composition of a spider web plays a crucial role in maintaining
its rigidity, strength and design; the peculiar properties of these naturally
occurring substances are determined by the strong ionic bonds & covalent
bonds that exists between their molecular or atomic structures contents.
In order to apply the
laws and characteristics of spider webs to different materials and shapes,
material engineers and scientists need to implement the applications of
Nanotechnology. This is a new and innovative branch of science that primarily
pertains to creation and building of operational structures or shapes from the
molecular levels or atomic scale with a minimum of 1 characteristic feature
that is measurable using nanometer scale. The properties of spider web can be
best applied to materials at nanometer scale as the atomic shapes and sizes of
substances at nanometer scale allows materials and their properties to
represent a completely new and improved chemical, physical and biological
characteristics, processes and phenomenon. On the basis of facts and evidences
found in researches, it can be said that nanometer scale phenomenon has a
significant influence on the material properties because of the intermediation
of bulk substances and isolated atoms that vary between 1 to 1000 nanometers.
Nanometer scale phenomenon allows materials to display completely different
characteristics and properties than those in the atomic or bulky form. The
world at nanometer scale phenomenon is completely different than the world at a
larger dimension because of the significant difference in the properties of
matter at nanometer scale phenomenon.
