Spider-Man
This blog is inspired by an article written by Dr. Fazale Rana in a November 28, 2018 issue of Reasons to Believe. The article is titled, “Spider Silk Inspires New Technology and the Case for a Creator”.
“Faster than a speeding bullet…able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…more powerful than a locomotive” – such was the description of my childhood hero, the “Man of Steel” himself, Superman. Then along came Spider Man. Although I was intrigued by some of the amazing feats Spider Man could do, he always lost in combat to Superman, at least in my overstimulated childhood imagination. After all, wasn’t steel much stronger than spider silk? Turns out I was wrong.
Although spider silk is six times less dense than steel, it is four times stronger. Spider silk has amazingly high tensile strength; no matter how much it is pulled and stretched, it is extremely hard to break. And, it has high ductility; that means it is pliable, not stiff. Spider silk is in a grouping of nature’s fibers that include silk worms, cotton, wool, and the like. Contrast this with a list of man-made, polymer-based synthetic fibers that include rayon, nylon, polyester, and spandex. When it comes to making spider silk, surely humans are smarter than spiders??
Biomimetics is a field of study that attempts to mimic or reproduce synthetically something that is found in nature. Spider silk is near the top of biomimetic research; imagine the commercial rewards for synthetically mass-producing fiber with the properties of natural spider silk? The alternative, spider farms, is not so appealing. Since scientists already know the precise chemical formula and molecular structure of spider silk – crystals that form in a protein chain, duplicating it synthetically should be a ‘piece of cake’, right? Not so fast.
Each variety of spider makes its own unique chemical formula for silk, and to make matters even more complex, they make different silks to fit specific purposes. A typical spider web is composed of radial lines, spiral lines, drag lines, frame lines, sticky balls, and attachment cement – to name a few. Spiders possess numerous glands; each gland is a manufacturing site for a fiber or glue. Let’s look at a few examples (found in a Wikipedia article):
Major Ampullate Gland – Dragline silk used for web’s outer rim and spokes
Flagelliform Gland – capture spiral silk – used for the capturing lines of the web
Tubuliform Gland – egg cocoon silk – used for protective egg sacs
Aciniform Gland – used to wrap and secure freshly captured prey
Aggregate Gland – a silk glue of sticky globules
Piriform Gland – used to form bonds between separate threads for attachment
Thus far researchers have been unable to duplicate the properties of spider-extruded silk in the laboratory. The key may be better understanding the protein chemistry of the silk precursors found in the spider’s glands, and the process they use to extrude the silk. They discovered that the silk proteins form micelles, but the micelles aren’t simple, rather assemble into a complex hierarchy of subdomains.
Are the various forms of silk spun by spiders the result of natural evolutionary processes, or might they better be explained as the elegant design of the Creator? In his article, Dr. Rana calls this “the converse watchmaker argument for God’s existence”. He writes:
“The idea that biological designs can inspire engineering and technology advances is highly provocative. It highlights the elegant designs found throughout the living realm. In the case of spider silk, design elegance is not limited to the structure of spider silk but extends to its manufacturing process as well – one that still can’t be duplicated by engineers.
“The elegance of these designs makes possible a new argument for God’s existence. The argument can be stated like this: if biological designs are the work of a Creator, then these systems should be so well-designed that they can serve as engineering models for inspiring the development of new technologies. Indeed, this scenario is what scientists observe in nature. Therefore, it becomes reasonable to think that biological designs are the work of a Creator.”
Recall that I’ve used a term “elegance factor” in earlier blogs to describe phenomena that seem to point to the work of a Divine Architect, or Intelligent Designer as some would say. I have a difficult time imagining that somehow a natural evolutionary process developed the spider’s intricate glandular silk-making mechanisms, and then programmed the spider precisely how to weave a perfectly-patterned web composed of a variety of silk fibers and adhesives deployed in just the right places.
Perhaps now that you know the lengths God went to when he designed the spider, you’ll think twice before stepping on it!?
