Proverbs 30:28

Proverbs 30:28

The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.

a. ASV: The lizard taketh hold with her hands, Yet is she in kings’ palaces.

b. YLT: A spider with two hands taketh hold, And is in the palaces of a king.

c. Classic Amplified: The lizard you can seize with your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.

d. Septuagint: And the eft, which supports itself by its hands, and is easily taken, dwells in the fortresses of kings.

e. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/ Writings: The spider seizes [its prey] with its handiwork, though it dwells in the king’s palace.

1. “The spider taketh hold with her hands…”

a. [The] spider [Strong: 8079 smamiyth sem-aw-meeth' probably from 8074 (in the sense of poisoning); a lizard (from the superstition of its noxiousness):--spider.]

b. taketh hold [Strong: 8610 taphas taw-fas' a primitive root; to manipulate, i.e. seize; chiefly to capture, wield, specifically, to overlay; figuratively, to use unwarrantably:--catch, handle, (lay, take) hold (on, over), stop, X surely, surprise, take.]

c. [with her] hands [Strong: 3027 yad yawd a primitive word; a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etc.), in distinction from 3709, the closed one); used (as noun, adverb, etc.) in a great variety of applications, both literally and figuratively, both proximate and remote (as follows):--(+ be) able, X about, + armholes, at, axletree, because of, beside, border, X bounty, + broad, (broken-)handed, X by, charge, coast, + consecrate, + creditor, custody, debt, dominion, X enough, + fellowship, force, X from, hand(-staves, -y work), X he, himself, X in, labour, + large, ledge, (left-)handed, means, X mine, ministry, near, X of, X order, ordinance, X our, parts, pain, power, X presumptuously, service, side, sore, state, stay, draw with strength, stroke, + swear, terror, X thee, X by them, X themselves, X thine own, X thou, through, X throwing, + thumb, times, X to, X under, X us, X wait on, (way-)side, where, + wide, X with (him, me, you), work, + yield, X yourselves.]

2. “...and is in kings' palaces.”

a. and is [Strong: 1931 huw' hoo of which the feminine (beyond the Pentateuch) is hiyw {he}; a primitive word, the third person pronoun singular, he (she or it); only expressed when emphatic or without a verb; also (intensively) self, or (especially with the article) the same; sometimes (as demonstrative) this or that; occasionally (instead of copula) as or are:--he, as for her, him(-self), it, the same, she (herself), such, that (...it), these, they, this, those, which (is), who.]

b. [in] king’s [Strong: 4428 melek meh'-lek from 4427; a king:--king, royal.]

c. palaces [Strong: 1964 heykal hay-kawl' probably from 3201 (in the sense of capacity); a large public building, such as a palace or temple:--palace, temple.]

1). Spiders have what is called Tarsal claws: A pair of small claws at the end of each leg, used by the spider to hold onto objects, including its own web. Many species have a smaller median claw behind the main pair.

 2). How does an orb web spider make its web? The most difficult part seems to be the first thread. Does the spider fly? Does she throw a line to the other side? Does she walk down and up at the other side carrying a thread that she attaches between the two sides? No, none of these ideas are true. The solution is simple. The spider releases a sticky thread that is blown away with the wind. If the breeze carried the silken line to a spot where it sticks the first bridge is formed. The spider cautiously crosses along the thin line reinforcing it with a second line. She enforces the line until it is strong enough. After this the spider constructs a loose thread and constructs a Y shaped thread. These are the first three radii of the web. Then a frame is constructed to attach the other radii to.  After all the radii are completed the spider start to make the circular threads. At first non-sticky construction threads a made. The distance between the threads is so wide that the spider can span the width with her legs. Finally the sticky thread is woven between the circulars thread. While attaching the sticky thread to the radii the construction thread is removed by the spider. Then web is completed with non sticky radii and sticky circular threads and the spider can rest and sit in the center of the web with her head down. After a night of hunting the web becomes worn out. The spider removes the silk in the morning by eating it, only leaving the first bridge line. After a daytime rest the spider constructs a new web in the evening. If the catch was low and the web is not heavily damaged the web may stay during the day and be reused after minor repairing. There are a lot of variations on this type of orb web. The web shown is made by the orb web spiders Araneus diadematus. Spiders of other families construct other types of web.

 

3). With reference to the Orb Web structure drawing about, the spiders use at least four different silks to construct its orb web;

a). Bridge thread and frame thread - very strong silk to support the whole web,

 

b) Radius - thin and almost invisible, not sticky, as framework to hold the capture spiral,

c). Auxiliary spiral - not sticky, as a guideline for web construction,

d). Capture spiral - very sticky, to snare insects, stretch 3x its length before breaking.

 

4). Science Digest, 1989. “The silk in a spider’s web is five times stronger than an equivalent filament of steel. In terms of speed per unit of weight, a spider’s web absorbs the impact of a jet fighter every time it traps a fly.”

5). New Artificial Spider Silk: Stronger Than Steel and 98 Percent Water:

Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a process for making strong, stretchy threads in an environmentally friendly way. Spider silk is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar, but making it in the lab has eluded scientists for decades. (Pixabay) Smithsonian Magazine JULY 26, 2017

The silk of the humble spider has some pretty impressive properties. It’s one of the sturdiest materials found in nature, stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It can be stretched several times its length before it breaks. For these reasons, replicating spider silk in the lab has been a bit of an obsession among materials scientists for decades. Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new material that mimics spider silk’s strength, stretchiness and energy-absorbing capacity. This material offers the possibility of improving on products from bike helmets to parachutes to bulletproof jackets to airplane wings. Perhaps its most impressive property? It’s 98 percent water. “Spiders are interesting models because they are able to produce these superb silk fibers at room temperature using water as a solvent,” says Darshil Shah, an engineer at Cambridge’s Centre for Natural Material Innovation. “This process spiders have evolved over hundreds of millions of years, but we have been unable to copy so far.” The lab-made fibers are created from a material called a hydrogel, which is 98 percent water and 2 percent silica and cellulose, the latter two held together by cucurbiturils, molecules that serve as “handcuffs.” The silica and cellulose fibers can be pulled from the hydrogel. After 30 seconds or so, the water evaporates, leaving behind only the strong, stretchy thread. The fibers are extremely strong – though not quite as strong as the strongest spider silks – and, significantly, they can be made at room temperature without chemical solvents. This means that if they can be produced at scale, they have an advantage over other synthetic fibers such as nylon, which require extremely high temperatures for spinning, making textile production one of the world’s dirtiest industries. The artificial spider silk is also completely biodegradable. And since it’s made from common, easily accessible materials – mainly water, silica and cellulose – it has the potential to be affordable. Because the material can absorb so much energy, it could potentially be used as a protective fabric. “Spiders need that absorption capacity because when a bird or a fly hits their web, it needs to be able to absorb that, otherwise it’s going to break,” Shah says. “So things like shrapnel resistant or other protective military clothing, that would be an exciting application.” Other potential applications include sail cloth, parachute fabric, hot air balloon material, and bike or skateboard helmets. The material is biocompatible, which means it could be used inside the human body for things like stitches.  The fibers could also be modified in a number of interesting ways, Shah says. Replacing the cellulose with various polymers could turn the silk into an entirely different material. The basic method could be replicated to produce low-heat, no-chemical-solvents-needed versions of many fabrics. “It’s a generic method to make all fibers, to make any form of [artificial] fiber green,” Shah says. Shah and his team are far from the only scientists to work on creating artificial spider silk. Unlike silkworms, which can be farmed for their silk, spiders are cannibals who wouldn’t tolerate the close quarters necessary for farming, so turning to the lab is the only way to get significant quantities of the material. Every few years brings headlines about new inroads in the process. A German team has modified E-coli bacteria to produce spider silk molecules. Scientists at Utah State University bred genetically modified “spider goats” to produce silk proteins in their milk. The US army is testing “dragon silk” produced via modified silkworms for use in bulletproof vests. Earlier this year, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden published a paper on a new method for using bacteria to produce spider silk proteins in a potentially sustainable, scalable way. And this spring, California-based startup Bolt Threads debuted bioengineered spider silk neckties at the SXSW festival. Their product is made through a yeast fermentation process that produces silk proteins, which then go through an extrusion process to become fibers. It’s promising enough to have generated a partnership with outdoor manufacturer Patagonia. But, as a 2015 Wired story points out, “so far, every group that’s attempted to produce enough of the stuff to bring it to the mass market, from researchers to giant corporations, has pretty much failed.” This is the challenge Shah and his team are facing right now.  “Currently we make around a few tens of milligrams of these materials and then pull fibers from them,” he says. “But we want to try and do this at a much larger scale.” To do so, the team is working on a robotic device to pull and spin fibers more quickly and at a larger scale than previously. They’ve had some success, Shah says, and continue to explore the process. “We’re still in the early stages of research,” he says. The team’s findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Emily Matchar is a writer based in Hong Kong and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Washington Post and other publications. She is the author of Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/new-artificial-spider-silk-stronger-steel-and-98-percent-water-180964176/