18-15n-77-30w:

18° 15’ N, 77° 30’ W

rhamphotheca:

Study Finds That Golden Silk Spider Silk Conducts Heat As Well As Metal

by PhysOrg staff

So he ordered eight spiders – Nephila clavipes, golden silk orbweavers – and put them to work eating crickets and spinning webs in the cages he set up in an Iowa State University greenhouse.

Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State, studies thermal conductivity, the ability of materials to conduct heat. He’s been looking for organic materials that can effectively transfer heat. It’s something diamonds, copper and aluminum are very good at; most materials from living things aren’t very good at all.

But spider silk has some interesting properties: it’s very strong, very stretchy, only 4 microns thick (human hair is about 60 microns) and, according to some speculation, could be a good conductor of heat. But nobody had actually tested spider silk for its thermal conductivity. And so Wang, with partial support from the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation, decided to try some lab experiments…

(read more: PhysOrg)     (photo: Coveredinsevindust | Wikipedia)

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Provided by Iowa State University (news : web)

catsnotcancer:

benppollack:

In honor of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington, Seattle Weekly featured 9 same-sex couples kissing on their cover 

This has been a long time coming and kudos to Seattle Weekly for doing this.  Two people expressing their affection and love for one another is so, so beautiful.  <3

rhamphotheca:

blackkittenclan: true that.