(Nanowerk Spotlight) Protein fibers such as collagen fibers, hairs, and silks, are fundamental building blocks of life. They play an essential role in motility, elasticity, scaffolding, stabilization ...

Researchers are involved has developed a bioinspired method that for the first time will allow researchers to spin artificial silk fibers as spiders do and to efficiently produce kilometers of silk.

Scanning electron microscopy images of fibers from engineered spider silk. To validate their computational findings, the Northwestern team used spectroscopy techniques to examine how the protein ...

Epson and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) have succeeded in developing new regenerated cellulose fiber with a silk-like sheen from waste cotton fabric through a new ...

The specific properties of the fiber, including its stiffness and toughness, can be controlled as needed simply by varying the speed of the extrusion process. These reconstituted fibers are also very ...

In exploring the optical properties of the Madagascar comet moth's cocoon fibers, Columbia Engineering team discovers the fibers' exceptional capabilities to reflect sunlight and to transmit optical ...

Silk is a naturally occurring fiber that silkworms use to make their protective cocoons. Most silk is produced for the luxury textiles market, although it has medical applications as well. This ...

Pound for pound, spider silk is among the strongest known materials. Unfortunately, though, farming spiders for their silk is highly impractical. While some researchers are pursuing synthetic spider ...