Phys.org  August 2, 2022 Researchers in Taiwan harvested dragline spider silk from the giant wood spider Nephila pilipes, which is native to Taiwan. They enveloped the silk, which is just 10 microns in diameter, with a biocompatible photocurable resin and cured it to form a smooth protective surface creating an optical fiber structure that was 100 microns in diameter, with the spider silk acting as the core and the resin as the cladding. They added a biocompatible nano-layer of gold to enhance the fiber’s sensing abilities. This process formed a thread-like structure with two ends. To use the fiber to […]