Media from: New analysis of the structure of silks explains paradox of super-strength
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Structure of silk. The yellowish regions are the key cross-linking domains in silk, beta-sheet crystals. Spider web photograph courtesy Nicolas Demars.
Figure courtesy M. Buehler (MIT)
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Breaking mechanisms of silk nanocrystals. The left part of the image shows a small crystal, which fails gracefully as a strand is being pulled out. The larger crystal on the right fails catastrophically as a crack forms at the left part.
Figure courtesy M. Buehler (MIT)
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