A Unique Golden Textile

workers carefully extracted about 80 feet of silk filament from each of the arachnids. The resulting 11-foot by 4-foot textile is the only large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk existing in the world today. B. Spider silk is very elastic and strong compared with steel or Kevlar, said textile expert Simon Peers, who co-led the project. Kevlar is a lightweight synthetic fabric which is chemically related to nylon. It is very tough and durable and used in bullet-proof vests. Kevlar is also resistant to wear, tear, and heat and has absolutely no melting point. But the tensile strength of spider silk is even greater than Kevlar's amid filaments, and greater than that of high-grade steel. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than 500 grams (18 oz). Spider silk is also especially ductile, able to stretch up to 140 percent of its length without breaking. It can hold its strength like a rope. This gives it a very high toughness, which equals that of commercial fibers. C. Researchers have long been intrigued by the unique properties of spider silk. Unfortunately, spider silk is extremely hard to mass produce. Unlike silk worms,…