Spiderweb Silk
Spiders spin webs with a stretchy material that's stronger
than steel and far more flexible. But attempts to use the
creepy crawlers for making fabrics have had little success
— until now. This year British textiles expert Simon
Peers and American fashion designer Nicholas Godley unveiled
an 11-ft.-long (3.4 m) spider-silk cloth made in Madagascar.
Creating it wasn't easy. Each day 70 people collected thousands
of golden orb spiders. Workers carefully spooled out the saffron-hued
filament from each spider before releasing it. All told, the
feat took four years, half a million dollars and more than
a million spiders — and, yes, they sometimes bite.
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