The spider and its silk are exquisitely designed engineering marvels. The spider has the ability to produce a variety of different kinds of silk strands for its web. These different kinds of silk, woven into the spider's web, serve remarkably different functions. Some lines are sticky to catch prey, while other strands are non-sticky so that the spider can approach its prey without becoming stuck to its own web. The drag line is a third kind of silk that the spider uses to lower itself from its web to the ground.
Scientists report that spider silk is made from a combination of crystalline and amorphous (randomly arranged) materials which combine the best characteristics of wire and rubber. Usually when you make something stronger, it becomes more brittle and resistant to being elongated. Yet the spider silk is just the opposite-as the threads become stronger, they also become more elastic.
The complexity of the spider and its ability to produce marvelously designed webs could not have happened by random-chace; they point to their Designer.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, March 24.
