Chemical catalysts (Image: Bernard Castelein/Nature Picture Library/Rex Features)
TIME to ditch the notion that cobwebs are a sign of disuse. They should signify activity instead, say Chinese chemists, who think the presence of synthetic webs could speed up some chemical reactions.
Dew-covered spiderwebs inspired Lei Jiang and Yong Zhao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues to explore spider silk’s water-collecting properties. They took silk from a native orb-web spider. Under an electron microscope, it looked like a necklace of fluffy beads separated by narrow strings of compact silk.
Once placed in a misty location, the fluffy…
