The caterpillars that spin commercial silk can make much tougher or more elastic threads, depending on how fast they’re forced to spin. If this research finding is translated into a marketable process ...

Imagine a sweater that powers electronics to monitor your health or charge your mobile phone while running. This development faces challenges because of the lack of materials that both conduct ...

Dan Widmaier is not really a fashion guy — "by any stretch of the imagination," he clarifies — but that hasn't stopped the chemist from taking on the apparel industry. His company, Bolt Threads, has ...

A hat made from Rambouillet wool is a perfectly nice hat. The fiber, shorn from a Rambouillet sheep, is fine and soft. Not at all scratchy. “They call it the American merino,” says Dan Widmaier, the ...

In 1789 President George Washington wrote in his journal after visiting Connecticut that the silk thread manufactured here was very fine. By1836 at least three out of every four households in ...

How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? Researchers in Sweden can now explain this process. How can a tiny ...