More cool news coming from the spider-science world!
Adding to the list of incredible and awesome uses for spider-silk, a scientist of Japan’s Nara Medical University, Shigeyoshi Osaki, has developed a set of violin strings woven from the ‘dragline’ silk spiders use to hang themselves from.
It’s apparently stronger and resonates brighter than the usual, aluminum coated, string traditionally used on violins and other stringed instruments! Researchers have been studying the pros and cons of using spider-silk for quite some time now and have been making breakthrough after breakthrough. Hopefully we’ll see some more incredible stuff very soon!
BBC News writes:
A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings.
The strings are said to have a “soft and profound timbre” relative to traditional gut or steel strings.
That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a “packing structure” that leaves practically no space between any of the strands.
The strings will be described in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters.
Read more at bbcnews.co.uk