Drawing inspiration from spider webs, engineers create amazing new 'liquid wire'
On the surface, the spider's web material may look fairly simple. It's a basic filament with sticky glue on the outside to capture prey, but in reality, the system is much more complex. The sticky glue that encases the thread does more than capture prey; it also functions like a fishing reel that coils up the excess parts of the thread. These loose parts uncoil when the web is stretched and then are recoiled inside the glue droplet when the tension is released. This simple but brilliant mechanism ensures the thread is taut in all situations.
(There's a very brief video)
The team plans to further refine this nature-inspired material and hopes to apply the principle to materials science, engineering, and medicine. "Our bio-inspired hybrid threads could be manufactured from virtually any components. These new insights could lead to a wide range of applications, such as microfabrication of complex structures, reversible micro-motors, or self-tensioned stretchable systems," said Dr. Herv Elettro, a doctoral researcher at Institut Jean Le Rond D'Alembert, Universit Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/spider-inspired-liquid-wire/
- - The U.S. used to be the pioneer in most things scientific.. then Bush II and 'compassionate conservatism' happened to us.
