Researchers from the Materials Science and Engineering branch of CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) in Australia have found a way to artificially produce honeybee silk. Due to its heavily coiled protein structure, honeybee silk is even stronger than that produced by spiders and other insects. Potential uses for this new super silk range from textiles to lightweight composite materials for marine or aviation purposes to artificial ligaments. Now that’s the bees knees!

[PopSci]

Honeybee image: Muhammad Mahdi Karim (www.micro2macro.net)/Wikipedia

Filed under: Biomedical, e-News, Materials

Tags: Biomimicry, Materials