SPIDER SILK IS NOT THE TOUGHEST BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL
Biological materials and biomaterials deserve to be characterized with rigor.
Yet the widespread narrative found in many papers claiming that spider silk is the toughest (or even the strongest) biological material persists, and it needs to stop.
Where does this misconception come from?
Largely from the fact that many studies rely on conflicting testing conditions that can introduce significant artifacts. To make matters worse, comparisons are often made between high-performance spider silks and domesticated Bombyx mori silk, which is a material bred for production volume, not for mechanical excellence.
The result is a scientific oddity that has heavily influenced the field, steering research directions based on incomplete or misleading comparisons.
After quite some discussions with Tom Braxton and Chris Holland, we finally published a paper that challenges and reframes this narrative.
So, what is the correct message?
“Spider silk is among the toughest biological materials.”
The toughest known biological material is likely bagworm silk, not spider silk.
I hope this work underscores the importance of properly characterizing materials, because their measured properties can shape the trajectory of entire research fields.
Check out the paper here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127525016454?via%3Dihub
Follow the news on my project EPASS: https://gabriele-greco.com/epass/
