Is Spider Silk the Future of Material Engineering?

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Spiders have a long and fabled history of being a notorious creepy-crawly, but their silk might just change that image. Here are six ways in which spider silk is being studied to improve life for human beings.
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[@SciShow]

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[@uabir8338]

What is a woman? I dare you to answer that in your videos!

[@davenduckworth2522]

@@uabir8338 what a stupid question, like literally everybody doesn’t already know or have the answer told to them by their conscience. Conscience? Con? As in “Against”? And science as in “Science”? Why should he answer that question when everyone who can understand him already knows the answer? What do you think is one of the first things babies ask about when they learn how to talk? You will find that babies speak because they want to say something not only because they want to know something.what they have to say is usually their own understanding of what a man/woman is. You ain’t never had no body try to tell you what a man or woman was like you didn’t already know? If you can understand me then stop your BS.

[@michaelmoore7975]

Spiders won WWI and WWII. My friends grandpa worked as a silk harvester during WWII. He would take a spider, mount it on a special harness and stimulate it to produce silk. He would gather the silk, winding it on tiny cards until the spider could no longer produce. Then that spider would have a vacation for a few days to recover before another milking. He was responsible for thousands of spiders and kept them in rotation. How did they win WWI and WWII? The silk was used as the cosshairs in every bombsight, artillery, firing scopes, gun scopes, spotting scopes, anything that required crosshairs, reticles, collimated reticles. Can you guess what kind of spider was best? The Brown Recluse.

[@trevor6358]

Imagine a t shirt that is completely environmentally friendly, super rip resistant, bullet proof, and insect repellent.

[@SuperCarneBoy]

And sticky

[@LizardVideoDude]

@@SuperCarneBoy *Yes!* "And sticky" Ummm... on second thought... 🤣

[@nizar8326]

And affordable

[@RaptrRamblings]

One size fits all too!

[@brycerush98]

You know dang well we’d make the farming process bad for the environment even if the silk is perfectly safe

[@timsullivan4566]

I suspect my room-mate also has hygroscopic properties - he effortlessly absorbs every liquid in my liquor cabinet...

[@slevinchannel7589]

Hot Take: Sicence-Fans have Tunnel-Vision, kinda. What about you? Do you watch Channel that can be summarized as 'Problem-Tacklers'? Illumiinaughtii, Some More News and... well... the entire Concept of Atheist-Channel? I mean, even if the recent Abortion-Thing had never ever happened, they would stil be the main-source of valid Criticism and problem-identifiers on YT, wouldn they? So it worries me that Sci-Fans only wanna be updated on Fun Science Stuff but not this.

[@sclair2854]

Have we considered the possibility spiders might be too small? If we geneticly engineer some of the more social spiders to be the size of sheep we should be able to produce massive quantities of large high quality silk... What? Why are you looking at me like that?

[@kylekaut7404]

I fully endorse this plan, sounds good. But, then again a spider's size is not limited by their genetics but rather the amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere and the amount of times they're able to successfully molt.

[@pheart2381]

imagine the flies though!

[@The_Natsu.]

@@kylekaut7404 Well, the biggest modern arthropod on land is the Coconut Crab.

[@LizardVideoDude]

I'm looking at you that way because *large herds of giant spiders* makes part of me think "What an awesome sight that would be!" While the other part shakes in uncontrollable terror.

[@graemcnuggets488]

Imagine a whole artificial environment where we could grow generations of spiders in high-oxygen environments, making them bigger and produce more silk!! Would actually be a great workaround to get the amount of silk we need for anything truly practical

[@oliverhernandez2486]

I hope biotech and genetic editing are fully embraced by everyone so that we can all benefit from this and other possible advancements sooner rather than later

[@CraneoHR]

read hellper bro

[@johnbauer8564]

Don't hold your breath. People are naturally hesitant about everything, even if it's going to improve their lives.

[@oliverhernandez2486]

@@johnbauer8564 unfortunately :(

[@feuerling]

We just need to stop greedy corporations from ruining its public image even more.

[@bartsshorts]

what about spiders rights?

[@bioman1hazard607]

This kinda reminds me of an old fable from my tribe, about an 8 armed woman who spun webs for her family and her warrior tribe. Arrows bounced from from the armor she made, it's crazy to see that now becoming a thing

[@Evergreen64]

"The ultimate tiny lab assistants" Anyone else get the image of a spider in a lab coat?

[@sakshimishra3143]

Thank you for making this video

[@sleepingninjaquiettime]

My dream of becoming a spider rancher may finally come true.

[@Dsyphus0]

id be curious to learn more about the "spider goats" how they produce the protein for spider silk in their milk. is that a viable way to mass produce the silk or are the spider goats, just a neat example of dna manipulation.

[@ian5395]

The buddy group was joking about the spider goats in the early 2000s. It's the earliest test concept that I know of. bacteria production can be scaled sooooo much higher and so much faster. the goats would take gestation cycles to try new runs, doing bacteria is hella fast

[@nathanandsugar5252]

Spider goat, spider goat…

[@LittleRadicalThinker]

The spider goat project is canceled.

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

I keep ladybugs and spiders all over my garden like I will bring spider to it to help out they love it my crops don’t get touched no pesticides everyone is happy

[@deldarel]

Indeed! Why hang individual strands if you can place a box of spiders near your crops and let them sort it out?

[@rhondahuggins9542]

Cool show!! If cellar spider silk becomes a thing...I could retire from a drag line harvest in my storage unit!!😁

[@loturzelrestaurant]

Does this SCIENCE-Channel not have the Guts to tackle Hot-Topics? Others stand-up against Trans-Hate and LGBT-Hate flaming-up right-now, but no, not this channel.

[@patrickbueno3279]

@@loturzelrestaurant why would they science is supposed to be this way, it's not a political channel.

[@noway9081]

I remember when a lab genetically engineered goats to produce milk that included spider silk proteins. They were producing a lot of the protein but the strength of spider silk comes from both its protein structure and the physical structure (the way that spiders physically weave it.). It's the same way hair and nails are mostly made of the same stuff but have different physical properties because they are physically structured differently. Getting the precise mechanical weaving is probably going to be the tighter bottleneck than creating the protein strands.

[@Dessamator]

I would be proud to own 'spider made' glasses. Both the 'plastic' frames, and inspired lenses! (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

[@downsidebrian]

Hmm.... I'm having pest issues in my garden, both with my beans and squash. Squash bugs are a bit of a scourge around here. I wonder if there's some kind of gauze mesh I could get and draw over my plants...

[@corneliuscorcoran9900]

I heard that George Clooney if pushing for production of the sequel, 'The men who stared at spider-goats'.

[@calladricosplays]

I always wondered if social spider species may be a better candidate for harvesting silk. Short strands can still be spun together, they just won't be as sheer or useful for embroidery as silkworm silk. Then again, I'm also trying to get eri silkworms to help with eradicating invasive castor but I'm having no luck

[@troyclayton]

10:45 The arrow-shaped micrathena! I found they can be aggressive when agitated. I only did it once.

[@evilsimeon]

Spider silk has been the future for at least 40 years.

[@stephaniec7454]

i love this channel it's got me interested in science again and i'm an r&d scientist haha 😂

[@timsullivan4566]

I've tried to explain the same concept to my boss, but he doesn't see that watching TV re-invigorates my interest in my job.

[@skylastudioz]

Love this, frack I love this channel.

[@roxyamused]

I'm just waiting for the day when silk in clothes can be produced cheaper than polyester or cotton. Silk worm production isn't great a they have to keep massive warehouses temperature and light controlled to keep the worms and trees they like happy. I buy used silk, but it'd be awesome for the luxurious material available without such a carbon footprint and considerably cheaper!

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Spiders, one of my heroes of the critters world! And to think they can help us make a better and _safer_ pesticide? Woo hoo, hell yes! I LOVE that! Thanks, SciShow and Hank, for all you do!

[@DragCadRacing]

Anyone catch Sam Schultz taking a nap in the ad at the end? Made me laugh out loud!

[@jansenart0]

Most spiders are completely harmless, yet a lot of us are completely, constitutionally creeped out by them. Perhaps there was a time in our species where we were constantly getting bodied by spiders? Maybe one of the ancestors of the Australian spiders?

[@General12th]

Imagine instead of tiny spiders biting you, it was giant spiders boxing you. Eight legs of fury! KNOCKOUT

[@joseabarzua8831]

I hear that when we were nomads, we would come across spiders much more frequently in the wild while walking through fields, and of course they bite out of fear of being crushed

[@time4movies21]

my favorite animal, so adorable

[@OakenTome]

@@joseabarzua8831 Dangerous spiders are also much more common and widespread outside of Europe and North America.

[@Em4gdn1m]

I love seeing John's face on Hank's chest.

[@dariushmalek6325]

I was looking for a comment about who that is, so it's really Johnny Depp?

[@Em4gdn1m]

@@dariushmalek6325 John Green...

[@dariushmalek6325]

@@Em4gdn1m Thanks man, I didn't know who that is!

[@Em4gdn1m]

@@dariushmalek6325 ah. Yeah his older brother, he's awesome. I love him just as much as Hank!

[@kevinfreeman3098]

Spider silk garden fence... Hmm

[@Articulate99]

Always interesting, thank you.

[@blue6uru82]

Spider silk space elevator? Or perhaps that tension strength could be used for the arm of an orbital accelerator?

[@Tht1Gy]

1:59 Yeah. Good idea. What could *possibly* go wrong?

[@NeuroRadX]

@4:50 Should I ever find a wet surface at -100°C, you bet I'd put a sticker on it :D

[@forabug594]

You joke, but keeping labels on frozen samples that go in and out of -80C freezers would be amazing!

[@rayrocher6887]

Thanks sci show, great report. I care and I like it

[@johnnyrasputin4819]

If we want to try making the space elevator, spider silk will be something we will probably need to learn from.

[@samwill7259]

It can also let you swing through the skyline of manhattan, quipping at old men dressed like vultures and octopi

[@michaelmoore7975]

Spiders won WWI and WWII. My friends grandpa worked as a silk harvester during WWII. He would take a spider, mount it on a special harness and stimulate it to produce silk. He would gather the silk, winding it on tiny cards until the spider could no longer produce. Then that spider would have a vacation for a few days to recover before another milking. He was responsible for thousands of spiders and kept them in rotation. How did they win WWI and WWII? The silk was used as the cosshairs in every bombsight, artillery, firing scopes, gun scopes, spotting scopes, anything that required crosshairs, reticles, collimated reticles. Can you guess what kind of spider was best? The Brown Recluse.

[@kaushalshah3052]

Thanks!

[@eliscerebralrecyclingbin7812]

Cool thanks

[@abdullahunal1108]

I couldn't concentrate and listen John staring at me.

[@genitafajarillo4610]

We are getting closer to being spiderman

[@omri9325]

Can't we just engineer giant spiders? that could be very cool :D

[@TheUltimateShade667]

They answered this a couple months ago. I posted the link but idk if youtube will delete it or not.

[@TheUltimateShade667]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWjEhZl6i7Vkgrc

[@h00zn8r]

Without lungs they have a size limit. If a spider got too big it would suffocate, since the current concentration of atmospheric O2 would be insufficient to diffuse through their microscopic breathing holes.

[@LizardVideoDude]

And giant spiders might have a few... less than desirable side effects. See: horror movies.

[@ShadowRifft]

Any SciShow Halloween Shirts with Spiders? 👀

[@rmtab6511]

I want organic spider silk only. Build spider milking machines!

[@helicrashpro]

You should take a look at Thought Emporium's video on spider silk.

[@wylanvallotton4462]

What is the practicality of potentially breeding or otherwise creating greatly bigger spiders, capable of producing more silk at a time?

[@TheGuruNetOn]

All we need is... Spiderman!!

[@Byahesabuhay]

Stark did it.

[@bartsshorts]

the other day i road my motorbike to the village, then noticed a spider web was still there stuck between the tread on the tire. i was amazed.

[@minddrift7152]

Spiderman knew this forever ago.

[@tomcat5151]

9:50 the strands contract and twist. Is the web ringing itself out?!

[@justinweatherford8129]

Just reading the headline here makes me curious if this is a repeat of something that I saw about 30 years ago.

[@neiltf1173]

I hate spiders but am genuinely interested in this video. I looked away every time a spider came onto the screen. 😂😂😂😂

[@gr8potatosaurusofthunderfart]

Time to open a spider farm with spider herd and spider shepherd and call him spiderman

[@lottieew135]

There are goats who have been genetically modified with genes from the Golden Orb Weaver spider. Their milk can be made into silk strands!

[@chance20m]

I've been hearing this for literally 30+ years. But I'm sure this time is different. /s

[@jirikivaari]

we need GIANT spiders!

[@FullThrottleAxolotl1]

One think Rick and morty showed me was we really need spider peace. I say we start with jumping spiders. Those fuckers are smart.

[@ffarkasm]

Credits goes to Udo? 1:33 :D

[@bentopher6949]

Spider silk... New Breakthrough... Any day now... Same thing I've been hearing for 60 years.

[@timthompson7205]

A Spider-Man bridge?

[@alto7183]

Buen video, no me extrañaría que estén viendo la telaraña a diferentes atmósferas, resiones, gases y temperaturas para sacar todos los secretos, sería interesante ver si en la luna titan sirven los Bio químicos como este, sugerencia.

[@1.4142]

This whole video sounds like a tongue twister when played at 2x speed

[@perafilozof]

Nature already solved so many problems and in such eco friendly ways. If we could only get in line instead of being bumbling bruts.

[@orsettomorbido]

So amazing!

[@GothMusicLatinAmerica]

My homies!

[@iainballas]

Can you imagine going to your first day at a research lab, and open the PPA closet to find it full of webs and a over-fed spider. "Oh, that's Chel. Don't mind her. She makes all our lenses."

[@spiderpickle3255]

I'd make "friends" with Chel so fast....

[@Natethesandman1]

TheThoughtEmporium has already been able to produce spider silk from yeast. This will be available relatively soon assuming my understanding is correct of his intentions.

[@DimitriosDenton]

Just get Skitter to create a spider factory.

[@DeRocco21]

If the defense industry can make bullet proof vests

[@justjones5430]

Nylon is made in a similar way to silk. I.E. it's pulled from a liquid & forms the strand as it's drawn out.

[@dubber.rucky.urtheone]

The Other Mother is quaking

[@targetedplantsguy9481]

I feel like they've been talking about this for the last 20 years

[@sydthegoat88]

Just one step closer to Spiderman becoming real, the technology is converging toward it. Lookout thieves !

[@jeremyurquhart7456]

Ime telling spiderman what you're up to..!! :)

[@jennypulczinski7204]

Oh, God, I could not watch this. I could only listen and my skin was crawling even so! I am not sure I could drink or eat from spider silk plastic replacements or wear them.

[@brycerush98]

Just imagine what those webs were like in the Carboniferous

[@charleshammel8541]

What's damp at -196 Celsius that you need a label on?

[@Megan-nt7dm]

I would love to have labels that would actually stick to stuff I store in the -80C freezer in my lab. I have to put sticky notes with labels inside the boxes, which isn't the best labeling scheme

[@charleshammel8541]

@@Megan-nt7dm thank you for the genuine answer; I was hoping there were real applications

[@Megan-nt7dm]

@@charleshammel8541 I also completely forgot about our liquid nitrogen tank, which we keep vertical racks with boxes in. That is at -196C, and if I want to label something, it has to be in sharpie. I'm not sure liquid nitrogen is considered damp though. Like it's "wet" but it becomes gas at room temp? Idk cryo liquids are weird Edit: we use this for long term storage of cells. For my lab at least, it's mostly human induced pluripotent stem cells. We get them from patient blood, then reprogram them into stem cells, then make them into neural progenitor cells

[@ooooneeee]

@@Megan-nt7dm our lab has special labels for frozen specimens that stay on the tubes at -80°C and in liquid nitrogen. It took them years of trying out different label types to find ones that work and they're very expensive.

[@charleshammel8541]

@@Megan-nt7dm this is the coolest thing I've heard in a youtube comment in a long while

[@sarahfonda4714]

How do hummingbirds migrate so far, even iver oceans, when they burn calories so quickly

[@sanjuansteve]

Natural is always best!

[@zulemasanchez1233]

So, how luxuriously expensive will it be?

[@michaeljames5936]

Imagine... if you can.... Spider Silk, made entirely from..... Carbon nano-tubes!!

[@phutureproof]

I feel like it has been for my entire life and im almost 40

[@holbvgbbbbkfz]

Friendly neighborhood spiders, got the reference

[@WormholeJim]

I wouldn't advise investing your lifesavings in projects seeking to utilize spidersilk. It won't be too long before some major breakthrough in quantum computing opens up that field for the industry to use and then stuff like nano assembly is going to follow is short order. *Then* spiders will study us to figure how to make better silk.

[@MrGustavier]

Is that Johnny Depp on his shirt ?

[@blacktimhoward4322]

*gervais voice* Powers... all these powers...

[@fezii9043]

I feel like I see these same materials every 10 years

[@squidly6179]

Whose on his shirt?

[@squidly6179]

Is this you guys for real for real?!?

[@ananyasahoo5161]

Never asked how Peter Parker has done it?!!

[@liamfinley8104]

You mentioned how they are using bacteria for producing synthetic spider silk, but what about the genetically modified goats that can produce the proteins in their milk?

[@donnysandley4649]

what if could make a spider man silk that some other lifeform will know we where here 😅

[@zwartkatdre]

Wait, so how does flextape work? Didnt they advertise that it would also stick when wet?

[@robbieguerrero2648]

For now, I will weave more but I am not a spider.

[@fdsfds7339]

Great video. How much of this video did you learn from Tom Holland?

[@WexMajor82]

It's 30 years I hear talking about how spider silk is the material of the future. I guess it'll keep being that. The material of the FUTURE.

[@Pluto137]

Is that his brother's face on his shirt?

[@matthewmurray1857]

Didn't they give a gene to goats so they can make spider silk

[@richard_d_bird]

yes they did and with a little googling you can read about their further adventures. last i heard, the goats are still the subject of research, but the folks involved are looking at other options for making spider silk, like modifying silkworms to make, or bacteria, or god knows what.

[@octoflex]

I thought they already figured this out using microbiology

[@vivalavivarium]

why re invent the wheel when spiders already got hover cars

[@jonatanromanowski9519]

Go Go Sci Show