Aquaponics. Spider silk spun into violin strings. 4 March 2012Last updated at 19:59 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News More than 300 spiders were used to generate the thousands of strands of silk making up each string A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings. The strings are said to have a "soft and profound timbre" relative to traditional gut or steel strings.
That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a "packing structure" that leaves practically no space between any of the strands. The strings will be described in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters. Shigeyoshi Osaki of Japan's Nara Medical University has been interested in the mechanical properties of spider silk for a number of years. In particular, he has studied the "dragline" silk that spiders dangle from, quantifying its strength in a 2007 paper in Polymer Journal. The Official Movie Website.
Earthship Biotecture Green Buildings. PLANETOPHYSICAL STATE OF THE EARTH AND LIFE. The US should invest in farmers' markets, report says. O’Hara estimates that these funds, along with farm to school programs, could help create as many as 13,500 new jobs. The report also recommends that the government invest more money in local infrastructure, such as meat-processing facilities, to increase the efficiency of small-scale farmers. Recent posts Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition Lastly, the report recommends that the food stamp program be expanded to allow low-income residents to purchase high-quality produce at farmers markets.
“If the US government diverted just a small amount of the massive subsidies it lavishes on industrial agriculture to support these markets and small local farmers, it would not only improve American diets, it would generate tens of thousands of new jobs,” O’Hara concludes. • Graham Salinger is a research intern for the Nourishing the Planet project.
US debt problem visualized: Debt stacked in 100 dollar bills. Agriculture Defense Coalition. Communities which have Rejected Fluoridation Since 1990. Zero Carbon Office Building Unveiled.