Fascinating Spider Silk

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Stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber: spider silk is unsurpassed in its expandability, resistance to tearing, and toughness. Spider silk would be an ideal material for a large variety of medical and technical applications, and researchers are thus interested in learning the spiders’ secrets and imitating their technique.


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All News summaries for April 04, 2007

Uncertain future for elephants of Thailand

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Worries over the future of Thailand' s famous elephants have emerged following an investigation by a University of Manchester team.

Study explores plausibility of bulbs and tubers in the diet of early human ancestors

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. Anthropologist Nathaniel J. Dominy of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has advanced the investigation of the diet of early human ancestors ...

Wealth Does Not Dictate Concern for the Environment

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
It has been a long-held assumption that poor nations will not support efforts to protect the environment since their citizens are too preoccupied with meeting basic needs, such as food and housing. However, a new study in ...

Construction workers unearth mammoth bones in Minsk

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Workers building a business centre in Minsk came across the bones of two mammoths thought to be between 25,000 and 45,000 years old, an official from Belarus' Academy of Sciences told AFP on Friday.

Women's access to credit affects efficiency in rural households

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Rural strategies designed to induce economic growth often emphasize the need to improve access to capital for poor households. However, this approach implicitly assumes that family members pool all their resources and allocate ...