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A of researchers from Sweden has unlocked one of nature's secrets. The scientists worked out how spiders make such silk when they spin their spider webs. The silk that spiders spin is strong and is tougher than . For decades, scientists have been researching what makes the silk so . Finally, researchers from Sweden's University of Agricultural Sciences and the Karolinska Institute have found the . They found that the materials for webs are stored in a spider's silk gland as . The gland has a level of acidity that helps to make the protein into very strong silk. The researchers copied this to make enough artificial spider-web silk to stretch for one .

The new artificial silk could be very useful to . Doctors are interested in it to use for . They also think it can help the skin recover after a . Some doctors believe the new silk could replace ligaments in the body. Airplane manufacturers and makers of clothing also see many uses for the new silk. Senior researcher Anna Rising spoke about how the discovery could be. She said: "This is the successful example of [copying] spider silk spinning. In the , this may allow industrial production of silk for bio-material applications or for the manufacture of textiles." The silk could become an important new material for us in the future.

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