(a) Nephila edulis spider in its web. (b) Schematic drawing of reflection mode silk biosuperlens imaging. The spider silk was placed directly on top of the sample surface by using a soft tape, which magnify underlying nano objects 2-3 times (c) SEM image of Blu-ray disk with 200/100 nm groove and lines (d) Clear magnified image (2.1x) of Blu-ray disk under spider silk superlens. Images © Bangor University and Oxford University, via EurekAlert
We’ve seen silk made without spiders, photomicrograph competitions, and the development of a new underwater microscope, but never thought that a strand of spider’s silk could be put under a normal microscope to then magnify an image even more than previously possible with current technology. But biologists from the Department of Zoology at Oxford University provided the silk know-how for engineers at the Bangor University’s School of Electronic Engineering to create a natural superlens:
Extending the limit of classical microscope’s resolution has been the ‘El Dorado’ or ‘Holy Grail’ of microscopy for over a century. Physical laws of light make it impossible to view objects smaller than 200 nm – the smallest size of bacteria, using a normal microscope alone. However, superlenses which enable us to see beyond the current magnification have been the goal since the turn of the millennium.
Organikos 