關于蜘蛛絲的迷人事實

關于蜘蛛絲的迷人事實

Spiderwebs rarely make a good first impression. Even if you aren't one of the insects they're designed to capture, a sudden coating of silk on your face can be annoying, and possibly alarming if you don't know where the spider ended up.

蜘蛛網(wǎng)很少能給人留下好的第一印象。即使你不是它們設計用來捕捉的昆蟲之一，突然在你臉上覆蓋一層蛛絲也會讓你感到厭煩，如果你不知道蜘蛛最終去了哪里，可能還會讓你感到恐慌。

After centuries of trying to harness the incredible properties of spider silk, scientists are finally starting to unravel some of its secrets. (Photo: Krasimir Matarov/Shutterstock)

Here's a closer look at what makes spider silk so spectacular, both as a marvel of biology and a treasure trove of biomimicry:

讓我們來仔細看看是什么讓蜘蛛絲如此壯觀，既是生物學上的奇跡，也是仿生學的寶庫:

1. Spider silk is stronger by weight than steel.

蜘蛛絲的重量比鋼重

Spider silk must be not just sticky, but also strong and stretchy to prevent escapes. (Photo: Nechaevkon/Shutterstock)

Spider silk is lighter than cotton and up to 1,000 times thinner than human hair, yet it's also incredibly strong for such a wispy material. This outsized strength is vital for spiders, who need their silk to withstand an array of destructive forces, from the frantic flapping of trapped insects to powerful blasts of wind and rain.

蜘蛛絲比棉花輕，比人的頭發(fā)還要細1000倍，但對于這種纖細的材料來說，它的強度也令人難以置信。這種巨大的力量對蜘蛛來說是至關重要的，蜘蛛需要它們的蛛絲來承受一系列的破壞力，從被困昆蟲瘋狂的拍打到狂風暴雨。

2. Spider silk is surprisingly diverse.

蛛絲出奇地多樣化

A large orb weaver wraps up its prey with swathing silk in Australia. (Photo: Graham Winterflood [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

Unlike silk-making insects, which tend to produce only one kind of silk, spiders make many varieties, each specialized for its own range of purposes. No one is sure how many types exist, as biologist and spider-silk expert Cheryl Hayashi recently told the Associated Press, but researchers have identified several basic categories of spider silk, each produced by a different silk gland. An individual spider can typically make at least three or four kinds of silk, and some orb weavers can make seven.

蛛絲昆蟲一般只生產(chǎn)一種蛛絲，而蜘蛛則不同，蜘蛛有很多種類，每一種都有其特定的用途。正如生物學家兼蜘蛛絲專家謝麗爾·哈亞希最近告訴美聯(lián)社的那樣，沒有人知道有多少種類的蜘蛛絲存在，但研究人員已經(jīng)確定了幾種蜘蛛絲的基本類別，每種蛛絲都是由不同的絲腺產(chǎn)生的。一只蜘蛛通常能織出至少三到四種蛛絲，而一些圓蛛能織出七種蛛絲。

3. Spiders make silk kites, slingshots, submarines and more.

蜘蛛可以在風箏、彈弓、潛水艇等等地方安家

A baby goldenrod crab spider balloons from a cardoon flower petal. (Photo: thatmacroguy/Shutterstock)

Silk gives spiders a wide range of housing options, from iconic spiral webs to tubes, funnels, trap doors and even submarines. The latter are mostly built by semiaquatic species like the beach-dwelling Bob Marley spider, which makes air chambers to ride out high tide, but there is one known species — the diving bell spider — that spends almost its entire life underwater.

蛛絲為蜘蛛提供了廣泛的居住選擇，從標志性的螺旋網(wǎng)到管道、漏斗、活板門，甚至潛水艇。后者大多是由半水生物種建造的，比如住在海灘上的鮑勃馬利蜘蛛，它能讓空氣室安然度過漲潮，但有一種已知的物種——潛水鐘形蜘蛛——幾乎一生都生活在水下。

4. Silk goes from liquid to solid as it leaves a spider's body.

當絲離開蜘蛛的身體時，它會從液體變成固體。

The magic of spider silk comes partly from the way a spider spins it. (Photo: Ian Fletcher/Shutterstock)

Silk glands hold a fluid known as "spinning dope," with proteins called spidroins arranged in a liquid crystalline solution. This travels via tiny tubes from the silk gland to the spinneret, where the proteins start to align and partly solidify the dope.

絲腺中含有一種叫做“紡絲原液”的液體，其中含有一種叫做蜘蛛蛋白的蛋白質(zhì)，它們排列在液晶溶液中。它通過細小的管道從絲腺傳遞到吐絲器，在吐絲器中，蛋白質(zhì)開始排列部分凝固粘稠物。

5. Some spiders replace their webs daily, but recycle the silk.

有些蜘蛛每天換網(wǎng)，但回收蛛絲。

A spiny-backed orb weaver works on its web in Marietta, Georgia. (Photo: Erin Cogswell/Shutterstock)

Orb weavers tend to build their iconic webs in relatively open areas, which boosts their chances of catching prey — and their chances of sustaining web damage. These spiders often replace their webs every day, sometimes even if they still seem perfectly fine, before spending their evenings waiting for prey.

圓球編織者傾向于在相對開闊的區(qū)域建立它們標志性的網(wǎng)，這增加了他們捕捉獵物的機會，也增加了它們維持網(wǎng)絡破壞的機會。這些蜘蛛通常每天都要換網(wǎng)，有時甚至在晚上等待獵物之前，它們看起來還很健康。

6. Spiders 'tune' and pluck their silk like a guitar.

蜘蛛會“調(diào)音”，像彈吉他一樣彈絲。

Spiders can learn a lot from even the slightest vibrations in their webs. (Photo: Khanistha Sridonchan/Shutterstock)

Anyone who has watched a spider in her web knows she pays close attention to even slight vibrations, which might indicate trapped prey. In recent years, however, scientists have found this is a lot more complex than it looks.

任何看過蜘蛛織網(wǎng)的人都知道，她會密切注意哪怕是輕微的震動，這可能意味著被困住的獵物。然而，近年來，科學家們發(fā)現(xiàn)這比看上去要復雜得多。

7. Some spider silk seems to have antimicrobial properties.

有些蜘蛛絲似乎有抗菌的特性。

Tegenaria domestica, known as the common house spider or barn funnel weaver, produces silk that inhibits growth in certain kinds of bacteria. (Photo: John A. Anderson/Shutterstock)

This kind of interest is hardly new, as humans have been co-opting spider silk for thousands of years. Polynesian anglers have long relied on its toughness to help them catch fish, for example, a method still used in some places. Ancient Greek and Roman soldiers used cobwebs to stop wounds from bleeding, while people in the Carpathian Mountains treated wounds with the silk tubes of purseweb spiders.

這種興趣并不新鮮，因為人類已經(jīng)選擇蜘蛛絲幾千年了。例如，玻利尼西亞垂釣者長期以來一直依靠它的韌性來捕魚，這種方法在一些地方仍在使用。古希臘和古羅馬士兵用蜘蛛網(wǎng)來防止傷口流血，而喀爾巴阡山脈的人們則用織網(wǎng)蜘蛛的絲管來治療傷口。

8. A golden age of spider silk might finally be near.

蜘蛛絲的黃金時代可能終于到來了。

This cape was hand-embroidered from the silk of 1.2 million golden orb-weaver spiders, a process that took eight years. The bright yellow color is reportedly the natural color of the spiders' silk. (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Despite our long fascination with spider silk, humans have also struggled to harness its powers on a larger scale. We've had trouble farming spiders like we do with silkworms, partly due to the territorial and sometimes cannibalistic nature of its creators.

盡管我們對蜘蛛絲有著長久的迷戀，但人類也一直在努力在更大范圍內(nèi)利用蜘蛛絲的力量。我們在飼養(yǎng)蜘蛛方面遇到了困難，就像飼養(yǎng)蠶一樣，部分原因是蜘蛛的領地意識，有時甚至是同類相食的天性。

Beads of spider glue cling to a strand of capture-spiral silk. (Photo: Sarah Stellwagen [CC BY-ND 4.0]/The Conversation)

Now, some 300 million years after the dawn of spiders, their silk and glue has also captured something else: our imagination. And if spiders can help us learn to make tougher fabrics, better bandages, safer pest control and other advances, maybe we can even forgive them for weaving all those webs at face level.

現(xiàn)在，在蜘蛛出現(xiàn)大約3億年之后，它們的蛛絲和膠水也抓住了另一個東西:我們的想象力。如果蜘蛛能幫助我們學會制作更結(jié)實的織物，更好的繃帶，更安全的害蟲控制和其他先進技術，也許我們甚至可以原諒它們在臉上織那么多網(wǎng)。