Is spider silk really stronger than steel?

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00:00 Could Spider Silk Let You Swing Like Spider-Man?
00:44 Is Spider Silk Really Stronger Than Steel?
02:29 Testing Spider Silk's Tensile Strength
03:48 The Strongest Silk on Earth
05:34 Spider Silk vs Kevlar vs Steel
07:37 The Nanostructure Behind Spider Silk's Strength
08:42 Why We Can't Farm Spiders
10:16 Engineering Fake Spider Silk
15:04 From the Silk Road to CRISPR
21:31 Real-World Uses and the Ultimate Swing Test

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Special thanks to the experts and collaborators who made this video possible:

Professor Todd Blackledge and the Blackledge Spider Lab at the University of Akron, for welcoming us into the lab, walking us through how spiders make and use silk, and letting us put the real material to the test.

Jon Rice and the team at Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, for opening their doors, sharing their transgenic silk, patiently explaining how their engineered silkworms work, and helping make the spider-silk swing possible.

Professors Keiji Numata, Chris Holland, Sara Goodacre and Greg Holland, for generously sharing their time and expertise in our research conversations helping us understand the extraordinary diversity of spider silks, how they are spun, and how structure, water and chemistry shape their properties.

Professors Ingi Agnarsson and Thomas Scheibel, for their guidance that helped sharpen our explanation.

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References: https://ve42.co/SpiderSilkRefs

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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:

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Writers - Vibhor Pandey & Henry van Dyck
Producer & Director - Vibhor Pandey & Henry van Dyck
Presenters & Narration - Henry van Dyck & Derek Muller
Editors- Trenton Oliver, Axel Oliver, James Stuart & George Reynolds
Animators - Alex Drakoulis, Andrew Neet, Domonkos Józsa, Emma Wright & Fabio Albertelli
Illustrator - Jakub Misiek
Researchers - Aakash Singh Bagga, Gabe Strong & Sophia Rose
Camera Operators: Henry van Dyck, Petr Lebedev, Casper Mebius and Ben Curtis-Dyck
Thumbnail Designers - Abdallah Rabah, Daniel Ellacott & Ben Powell
Production Team - Matthew Cavanagh, Jess Bishop-Laggett, Glen Griffiths, Josh Pitt, Luke Lewis, Anna Milkovic & Justin St-Laurent
Executive Producers - Henry van Dyck, Emilia Gyles, Casper Mebius & Derek Muller

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Pond5 and Storyblocks
Music from Epidemic Sound