Why spiders' silk threads don't twist

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Araneus diadematus spider dangling from its thread.
Araneus diadematus spider dangling from its thread.

Unlike a mountain climber swinging from a rope, a spider suspended from its silk thread hardly ever twists. Although the flexibility and strength of a spider’s dragline outperforms the best synthetic fibres, surprisingly little has been published on the twist properties of the thread. A new study however, by a research team from Oxford and Rennes Universities, published in Nature, reveals just how good the damping properties of spider silk are.


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