Cheryl Hayashi loves spiders, so much so that she says being asked to name a favorite is like asking a mother to pick which child she loves most. She challenges even arachnophobes to not crack a smile at jumping spiders' "teddy bear"-like cuteness. But it's not their good looks that attracts Hayashi, professor and vice chair of biology at University of California, Riverside, to spiders. It's their silk.
Many spiders produce several different types of silk - some stronger, some stretchier - to build webs, wrap up prey, encase eggs, and line nests, among other uses. Multiply that by the diversity of spiders, and Hayashi estimates there are thousands of varieties of spider silk, some stronger than steel.
Hayashi studies the physical properties of spider silks alongside the evolution of spiders themselves, trying to understand how the current panoply of silks arose and how they might be put to use. Hayashi envisions strong fishing nets that biodegrade when lost or abandoned, eliminating problems like whales entangled in derelict fishing gear (currently one of the leading causes of death for endangered humpback and North Atlantic right whales). Spider silk could be used as bandages or even lightweight, flexible body armor, although Hayashi points out that, in the latter case, it would likely need to be mixed with other, less-expensive and less-elastic materials.
One of the greatest obstacles to widespread use of spider silk is synthetic production, which is currently rather crude. While spiders can spin fine silk threads in split seconds, human processes tend to produce lumps of silk that, even when spun out, do not match the strength and elasticity of their natural counterparts. But that, Hayashi says, is something we can work on. Hayashi even says that Spider-man scenarios are within the realm of possibility ... with more work.
Note: This originally aired as a full episode of Living Lab on August 24, 2015.