More Taste of Academia
Is Spiderman Really a Spider?
The Wonderful World of Spiders
Entomologist Itai Optovsky of the Open University of Israel's Avinoam Adam Department of Natural Sciences was an avid reader of Spiderman comics when he was a kid. That easily explains how he became interested in spiders "professionally." Itai was ready to share his interest in spiders with Ra'anana's kids and not a few adults. Of course, he hooked the kids in the very beginning when he asked them how many read Spiderman comics. Nearly all raised their hands. Everyone (or almost) knows Peter Parker's story…bitten by a spider he inherits many of the spider's qualities including the ability to create silk threads from his hands that enable him to leap from one building to the next.
Itai broke the Spiderman myth when he said, "I'm sorry to say that as I learned more about spiders I realized that Spiderman comics are a bit of a (gulp) lie."
The silken threads, a great source of pride for spiders, do not really emanate from the hands (as Peter Parker's do), but rather (ahem) from the anus. These threads are created from protein, which when it comes into contact with the air hardens.
Spider's weave threads to create webs which are designed to capture nourishment for them such as flies and other bugs and also serve as steel-like incubators for their offspring, each silk egg-case containing hundreds of eggs. They are so strong that almost nothing can break them.
Today scientists are trying to recreate these silken threads, Itai explained. "These threads are forty times stronger than steel, and extremely elastic. That's why any number of laboratories are investing enormous amounts of resources in trying to develop artificial spider threads. So, far with no success."
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