The old saying, “Oh what a tangled web we weave,” refers to the mess into which we can get ourselves when we do not follow God’s pattern for truthfulness. But, it also refers to one of the truly unique creations that man so far can only look at in amazement, the spider’s silk used to make the spider’s web.
Man has for many years taken notice of this substance that the spider makes. It is one of the most displeasing experiences to be walking in the woods or in an unused corner of the basement and run into a web with one’s face. We have all “been there and done that,” and most of us do not look forward to our next experience. However, in the spider’s silk, scientists have uncovered one of the most amazing substances in the world and one that they would love to be able to copy.
Silk is found in many different animals in the world, but that found in the Arachnids or spiders is unique. Man has found ways to collect silk made by the larvae of the silk moth and to put it to good use for products used by man. If it could be collected, the spider’s silk would be some of the most valuable material ever used by man. It is stronger than material man has devised. It is stronger than steel, Kevlar and any other natural product. As of yet, the collection of spider silk for use by man has eluded mankind since the spiders, when put in large quantities in one small area, tend just to eat each other! The mass production of this material for use in many applications would be a major breakthrough for mankind — like none other made to date. Let’s look at this most marvelous of materials and see how God has endowed the lowly spider with this amazing material.
The spider has a unique set of glands for the production of silk called spinnerets. Studies at the University of Aarhus in Denmark have revealed that the process is very much like the manufacture of nylon. The spider has a tube called duct through which the proteins that will become silk are squeezed. Before the proteins go into the duct, they are a liquid and would be of no use for the production of a web; but within the duct are specialized cells that draw water away from the silk proteins. Hydrogen is taken out of the water after leaving the silk duct and the hydrogen ions are pumped into the next section of the duct. These hydrogen ions are positively charged and cause an acidic condition to be established. This, in effect, causes an acid bath to occur within the silk duct. As the silk makes contact with the acid in this part of the duct, it hardens, and the proteins begin to form cross bridges with one another that harden the silk into the material that the spider then uses to spin its web.
Each of the 30,000 species of spiders produces a different type of web or at least uses its silk for a different purpose. Some use the silk to bungee jump from high places. Some spiders use the silk as a lifeline as they explore ways and places to find food. If the spider lowers itself into a dangerous situation, then it simply climbs the thread of silk that it has produced as it drops and gets itself back to a safe area. Young spiders are able to “balloon” or drift on light currents of air as they make their way to areas of other food, by producing silk and then acting like a kite as they are blown by the wind. And, unlike any material that man has ever made, the silky web of the spider being made of protein has another property; it can be eaten by the spider and recycled.
Chemists would love to be able to produce the spider’s silk, either in a synthetic fashion or by recombinant gene technology, causing bacteria to make it. But, alas, the simplest of God’s creations has so far eluded man’s intellectual efforts to reproduce a substance that the evolutionist would want us to believe just came about by a random series of accidents. Indeed, “The fool has said in his heart there is not God.”
