Why are cobwebs both strong and tough?

Anna Reis, an expert at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute (not involved in this experiment), said that cobwebs must undergo metamorphosis when they leave spider’s body. When fibroin is still in the glands, they must be suspended in a “very high concentration” liquid form, almost as viscous as toothpaste.

The researchers also found that the dehydration of the liquid fibroin during movement is a prerequisite for this self-assembly. Further research showed that timing and efficiency are both key elements of the spinning process. If the cobwebs harden too early, they will block the spider’s glands; if too late, the spider may only spin unshaped liquid.

This paper replaced real spider with a simplified laboratory model. Angela Alicia-Serrano, a cobweb researcher at the University of Akron (not involved in this experiment), said that this meaningful study could give people a glimpse of the mechanism and process of spinning. “We have seen so many experiments about the beginning and end of this process, but we haven't seen any about the important process between.”