1. Biopolymers: shape memory in spider draglines
- Author
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Olivier, Emile, Albert, Le Floch, and Fritz, Vollrath
- Subjects
Torsion Abnormality ,Biopolymers ,Torque ,Silk ,Animals ,Spiders ,Copper ,Biomechanical Phenomena - Abstract
The ductility and strength of spider draglines means that they outperform the best synthetic fibres, but surprisingly little is known about the torsional properties of this remarkable filament. Unlike a mountain climber swinging from a rope, a spider suspended from its silk thread hardly ever twists. Here we show that a spider dragline has a torsional shape 'memory' in that it can reversibly and totally recover its initial form without any external stimulus; its observed relaxation dynamics indicate that these biological molecules have successively different torsional constants.
- Published
- 2005