Silk is not typically associated with Africa, but the luxurious cloth has been produced there for centuries. Moth to Cloth: Silk in Africa, an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) now on view ...

Spiders give some folks the heebie-jeebies, but web-weaving arachnids produce a unique, versatile material that could be the textile of the future. They spin a silk that’s as strong as steel, ...

Japan-based biochemist Ali Malay has long questioned traditional theories about how spiders make their silk. “The prevailing hypotheses seemed like magic, because, according to it, you suddenly have ...

Did you know crickets can spin silk webs? Not all crickets, but the raspy cricket spins silk to create a cozy burrow.

Spiders hold the market for the strongest silks but are too aggressive and territorial to be farmed. The next best alternative involves incorporating spider DNA into silkworms, an expensive and ...

We're not talking about the latest high-tech material developed in a lab somewhere, but one of nature's supermaterials — spider silk. Spiders make many different kinds of silks. Orb-weaver spiders, ...

Like many traditional Jewish brides, Dora Piperno wanted to give her future husband a tallit — a Jewish prayer shawl — as a wedding gift. With one difference: She wanted to give him a tallit made of ...