Interviewed for DR Viden magazine article

I have been interviewed for an article in the Danish Radio’s science magazine on the biomimetic potential of spider silk (here as major ampullate silk, dragline silk. The article focus on its unique material properties (extraordinary high toughness caused by a combination of high tensile strength and high elasticity, but also touches on the problems, despite much funding and effort, with developing artificial silk with properties anywhere close to those of the natural spider silk. While we can create the correction protein solution, we cannot at the moment replicate how the silk gets its properties when changing from an aqueous solution inside the spider body to a solid material at the end of the spinnerets (mainly because the process is very complex with water and pH regulation as well as mechanical forces all play a role). The article concludes with some speculation on what could be achieved if artificial silk could be created including novel crash impact devices.