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from the side-of-nightmare-with-your-space-elevator dept.
Spider silk is one of the more extraordinary materials known to science. The protein fiber, spun by spiders to make webs, is stronger than almost anything that humans can make.
The dragline silk spiders use to make a web's outer rim and spokes is amazing stuff. It matches high-grade alloy steel for tensile strength but is about a sixth as dense. It is also highly ductile, sometimes capable of stretching to five times its length.
This combination of strength and ductility makes spider silk extremely tough, matching the toughness of state-of-the-art carbon fibers such as Kevlar.
No word in the article on how close to the necessary tensile strength for a space elevator they come. Or how quickly the spiders got cancer. But at least it's a simple process. I wonder if the same technique will work with silkworms, which are commercially viable (something that spiders aren't).
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday June 30 2015, @01:40PM
Do spiders even live long enough to develop cancer? What is the average life expectancy of a spider? There probably isn't enough time for them to develop cancer under their normal lifespan. So it's probably safe to feed them some delicious nanotubes, perhaps PETA should have a campaign. But I doubt they ever will since spiders just are not cute enough.
The more interesting thing might be what happens to their offspring; do they get any kinda of special powers or not.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday June 30 2015, @02:59PM
Age has little to do with it, number of cell divisions is the issue. Every time the cells divide you have the possibility of damage that will cause cancer. You can damage DNA at other times, but it tends to be more likely to be repaired correctly than if it's just one strand.
Humans have cells dieing and being replaced rapidly. The life span of a cell in the human body is between about 3 days and about 50+ years.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @03:04PM
Age has little to do with it, number of cell divisions is the issue.
Tell that to whales. They have far far more cells, and so more cell divisions.
http://www.nature.com/news/massive-animals-may-hold-secrets-of-cancer-suppression-1.12258 [nature.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peto%27s_paradox [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:05PM
Does that mean that naked mole rats are actually dwarf giant kaiju monsters?
Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
(Score: 2) by penguinoid on Wednesday July 01 2015, @05:27AM
since spiders just are not cute enough.
Lies! [google.com]
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.