Tufts scientists accidentally create Spider-Man-like silk tech

The character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee in 1962, has become one of the most recognizable icons in pop culture. The superhero is distinguished by his ability to swing through the city using spider webs and has re-entered popular consciousness thanks to the films featuring Tom Holland as Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Earlier, Tobey Maguire popularized the character in films from the early 2000s.

Although many considered spider webs an element of fantasy, researchers from Tufts University decided to tackle the challenge of making this fiction come alive. The team of scientists developed a technology that allows liquid to be projected from a needle, instantly transforming into a solid fiber capable of adhering to surfaces and lifting objects.

Interestingly, this technology wasn't the result of a planned experiment. As Marco Lo Presti, an assistant professor at Tufts University, revealed, it all began by chance during the cleaning of laboratory glassware.

I was working on a project to create exceptionally strong adhesives using silk fibroin. When I was cleaning the glass with acetone, I noticed that a material resembling a spider web started to form at the bottom of the vessel, Lo Presti recalled.

The mysterious fibers were based on fibroin, a protein obtained from silkworm cocoons. Silkworm cocoons are boiled and then broken down into protein components that can be spun into strong fibers.

The process of creating these fibers is inspired by nature, which has long been a source of ideas for scientists. Many animals, such as spiders, wasps, butterflies, and flies, produce silk at different stages of their lives. However, what has been achieved in the laboratory surpasses the natural abilities of these animals.

A key component of the technology is the use of a silk fibroin solution combined with dopamine and chitosan, a chemical compound derived from insect shells. Adding a borate buffer enhances both the strength and adhesiveness of the fibers. Ultimately, the created material can lift objects weighing more than 80 times its own weight.

Although natural spider silk is still about 1,000 times stronger than the artificial fibers developed by Lo Presti's team, the technology holds enormous development potential.

Unlike spiders, which need to physically contact surfaces to create their web, we demonstrate how a fiber can be shot from a device to adhere to surfaces and lift an object from a distance, explained Lo Presti.

Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto, director of the Silklab at Tufts University, emphasizes that the inspiration for this technology came not only from nature but also from comics.

This discovery opens the door to advanced technologies that could be used in various fields, from adhesive production to innovative methods of microchip manufacturing. Who knows, maybe one day we will use comic-book-inspired technologies in everyday life.