Polymer fibers: silk and synthetic polymers: reconciling 100 degrees of separation (adv. Mater. 1/2012).
Holland C., Vollrath F., Ryan AJ., Mykhaylyk OO.
The image shows a sketch of a Chinese silkworm spinning a silk fiber. Using shear-induced polarization light imaging, Oleksandr O. Mykhaylyk and co-workers at Sheffield and Oxford Universities demonstrate on page 105 that the work required to produce natural silk fibers is at least ten times less than that required for a typical synthetic polymer. They also (re)define the concept of polymer crys-tallization and class silks as a new nanocomposite state of biological matter: "aquamelts".