TINA CASEY
The U.S. Air Force is funding a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that could lead to the development of new materials that share the ultra-light, ultra strong properties of spider silk.
The MIT project uses a new kind of analogy to pinpoint exactly how the structure and function of spider silk is analogous to the sonic structure of a melody.
This is just one of a growing list of spider silk research efforts funded by the Air Force, which includes projects at the University of Wyoming, Georgetown University and Florida International University.
According to Denise Brehm of MIT News, the use of music to analyze the properties of spider webs is the result of a new approach to creating scientific analogies, called ologs.
The olog concept is the brainchild of a member of the research team based in the Mathematics Department, David Spivak, a specialist in the branch of category theory.
Brehm explains:
“Ologs provide an abstract means for categorizing the general properties of a system — be it a material, mathematical concept or phenomenon — and showing inherent relationships between function and structure.”
If the whole thing sounds a bit metaphysical, there may be a reason for that. Olog is short for “ontology logs,” and ontology refers to a touchstone in philosophical reasoning, the exploration of the nature of being.
In the sciences, ontology refers to the construction of mathematical definitions that share characteristics with expressions of logic.
The research team applied Spivak’s olog framework to studies done by MIT Associate Professor Markus Buehler into the structure of spider silk, in order to explore similarities between the structure and function of amino acids and sound waves.
This new approach, according to Brehm, “could help engineers develop materials that make use of the repeating patterns of simple building blocks.”
In the case of spider silk, this could lead to a better understanding of the nanoscale structures that provide the slim threads of natural material with its superhero-scale strength.
The Air Force has a vested interest in developing unusually light but strong materials given its airborne warfighting mission, and there is also the potential for application in many other fields such as medicine and electronics. However, it is impractical to harvest mass quantities of silk from spiders, as is done with silkworms, so the search for an artificial alternative is on.
The musical connection is just one of the unusual paths the research has taken. Another spider silk research project, at Arizona State University, involves the use of transgenic goats to produce spider silk proteins in their milk.
