Spiders are capable of producing one of the finest filament strands known to man. These threads can be 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair, yet the silk is five times stronger than an equivalent weight of steel cable.
Scientists have yet to learn to synthesize an equally strong artificial silk, nor do they know how a spider keeps from clogging its spinnerets as the emerging silk immediately solidifies upon exposure to oxygen.
We have also made some incredible discoveries from spider silk. Scientists recently coated silk with a type of glass SiO(C2H5)4 and then burnt away the inner silk in a 788*F oven. The resulting glass shrinks fivefold leaving a hollow glass tube with an interior diameter 50,000 times smaller than a human hair. These tubes can be used as light pipes for light-speed optical circuits or as nano-sized test tubes for single molecules of specific chemicals.
In another discovery, an Israeli company has produced a large spider-web-shaped net of fine fibers in the shape of an inverted tent. At night, dew droplets form on the fibers in the same way they collect on a spider’s web in the morning. The droplets roll downwards into a collection container; a 20 foot diameter web can collect up to 12 gallons of water per night from desert air.
What marvelous wonders we can learn from God’s creation.
Excerpted from: Inspired Evidence
By: Julie Von Vett & Bruce Malone