Since the launch of the first web page on November 13th, 1990, within the WorldWideWeb project, initiated by Tim Berners-Lee & Robert Cailliau and initially aiming at developing a hypertext web organized system, in order to improve the distribution of intern information, arachnids organisational systems are more inspiring than ever.

It must be said that, in addition to their amazing architectiral skills, spiders, which have been living on our planet for over 380 million years, including more than 45000 spieces spread amongst numerous habitats all over the world, produce a silk with versatile properties : though exclusively made of water and proteins, as well renewable and edible, it appears to be more resistant than steel, biocompatible and potentially moulded like plastic.

Therefore, spider silks future is looking as bright as astonishing :

At Palais de Tokyo, a few months ago, On Air exhibition staged the incredible work of these small (or occasionnally big !) babies, through Tomás Saraceno experiments regarding hybridity of the webs or possibilities of an interspecific communication.

On the electronic side, researcher Nolwenn Huby, from Rennes Institute of Physics (CNRS), has achieved to produce a chip, the circuit boards of which are produced from spider silk.

Biomedical researcher Fiorenzo Omenetto, for his part, identified more than 20 potential uses such as biodegradable chips, holograms, silk to manufacture clothes and miscellaneous items.

In short, we still have a lot to learn from spiders, including about their efficient way to communicate ! So, next time you’ll cross the track of one of them, even if you’re a bit scared, don’t step on it : they are the future…