Scientists add carbon nanotubes to spider silk, create ridiculously strong fibers

 
Spider silk is arguably one of the most amazing materials known to man. Despite being extremely lightweight and ductile, it’s also ridiculously strong, with tensile strength that rivals that of alloy steel. It’s already one of the strongest fibers found in nature — but believe it or not, a team of researchers at the University of Trento, Italy have figured out a way to make it even stronger.
The team’s approach was relatively straightforward. They started with 15 Pholcidae spiders collected from the Italian countryside, which they kept in controlled conditions in their lab. After collecting dragline silk samples to use as a reference, the researchers then sprayed the spiders with a nanotube-infused water solution and measured the strength of the silk they produced.
Some of the spiders spun sub-par silk, and a few of them even dropped dead after being sprayed with the solution. But a few of them proceeded to do something amazing — they produced nanotube-reinforced silk draglines with strength and toughness far beyond any fiber ever created.