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Tag: "silk" at biology news

Symbiotic bacteria protect hunting wasps from fungal infestation

...ae then take up the bacteria and apply them to the silk threads of their cocoons. The researchers found that experimental removal of the bacteria caused increased fungal infestations and increased larval mortality ?in fact, little larval survival ?suggesting that the bacteria produce antibiotics that work...

Bugs, even 'bad' ones, can be educationally beneficial, new book says

...aturalist Leopold Trouvelot brought them to use in silk culture experiments. A few escaped as caterpillars and their descendants thrived, leading to rampant defoliation 20 years later. Such destruction has led people to devise various methods to exterminate bad bugs. "The least creative way to get rid o...

Afghanistan to protect wildlife and wild lands

...e of one of the first European travelers along the silk routes to east Asia and who described the giant sheep in his writings in the late 13th Century. Other mammals known to occur in Afghanistan include the ibex, the Persian leopard, gazelles, and the elusive snow leopard. Specifically, five areas being...

MIT engineers probe spiders' polymer art

...tified two key physical processes that lend spider silk its unrivaled strength and durability, bringing cl...nning artificial spider silk. Manufactured spider silk could be used for artificial tendons and ligaments, sutures, parachutes and bulletproof vests. But e...

Tarantulas produce silk from their feet

...und for the first time that tarantulas can produce silk from their feet as well as their spinnerets, a dis...rofound implications for why spiders began to spin silk in the first place. Adam Summers, a UC Irvine professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, was ...

New genetic analysis forces re-draw of insect family tree

...phila melanogaster), mosquito (Anopheles gambiae), silk moth (Bombyx mori), flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum), honey bee (Apis mellifera) and sibling parasitic wasp species (Nasonia vitripennis and Nasonia giraulti). These insects represent the four major orders of holometabolous insects, beetles (Co...

Stanford scientists make major breakthrough in regenerative medicine

...iological equivalent of turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse and back again." ...

Fascinating spider silk

...er than steel and more elastic than rubber: spider silk is unsurpassed in its expandability, resistance to tearing, and toughness. Spider silk would be an ideal material for a large variety of medical and technical applications, and researcher...

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