A menacing spider and its web outside Gua Tempurang in Malaysia.

Just last night, I was reading on GizMag about the wonders of the spider web and its amazing strength.

“They have an ultimate strength comparable to steel, toughness greater than Kevlar and a density less than cotton or nylon,” said senior study author Dr. Frauke Gräter from the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies.

~ gizmag.com

Today, I read on the NY Times that a simple little spider could disable a Mazda 6 with its web.

In a new filing, Mazda told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that “a certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction in the line.”

~ nytimes.com

That just goes to show how strong spider webs are!

Imagine if a pencil sized web could entrap a 747, just how many more wonderful and interesting properties we could have for spider web like material. I could see anything from spider web weave fabric to ballistic armour stronger than Kevlar.

More recently, I read about flying wind turbines as the winds about 2000 feet above ground level are way more consistent than they are where our current turbines are built. Such lightweight yet high strength web like cables could provide the tethering for those uses.

As I was looking around for more information on spiders and their webs, I came across this forum with a link to this image of a bat caught in a spider web.

Wow, I hate spiders. I am truly, utterly amazed by the properties of their webs, but do I ever hate spiders.

Here’s a video of the Sydney Funnel Web Spider just to add more anti-spider propaganda!