Saturday, October 07, 2006 / 2:59 AM
Spider-Man
It began when Peter Parker was attending a high-school demonstration of radiation technology. A spider crept into the beam of radiation and bit Peter's hand. This gave him superhuman spider-like abilities.
In the original comic book, Peter's new talents inspired him to invent his trusty webslingers, small jets attached to his wrists that fire a special polymer that hardens on contact with air. (In the first Spider-Man film with Tobey Maguire, Parker grows natural webslingers).
Peter Parker lives with his Aunt May and works as a photographer for the Daily Bugle. But as Spider-Man, he fights evil in the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of New York.
A.K.A
Peter Parker
History
Bitten by a radioactive spider
Superpowers
* Superhuman strength and reflexes* Can stick to most surfaces* Intuitive sense for danger* Able to shoot and spin webs
Equipment
Trusty webslingers
Arch enemies
The Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus
Weakness
Vunerable to conventional weapons
Love interest
Mary-Jane Watson
Catchprase
"Whoops ... Spidey senses tingling!"
Why can spiders walk up walls?Spider-Man can stick to almost any surface. Many spiders do this by secreting a little bit of sticky silk onto their feet as they move across the surface, anchoring their feet in place.
Others have millions of specially shaped, microscopic hairs on their legs that slip into all the nooks and crannies of a ceiling or window. This helps them to stay secure, like a climber using the tiny cracks in a rock face to reach the top of a mountain.
Hairy climber
This also explains why you find spiders in the bath - they can't get a grip on the smooth surface to climb out.
Stronger than steel
Anyone who has ever walked into a spider's web knows that the silk is deceptively strong, despite its gossamer appearance. Dragline silk, which spiders use to crawl down from ceiling to floor, is the strongest of all. Weight for weight it is actually stronger than steel, holding over 280,000,000kg per square metre (400,000 pounds per square inch) without breaking.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to farm spiders for their silk because they tend to eat each other. So scientists have tried a variety of different methods to produce the silk without arachnid help. One of the more successful relies on stealing the spider's silk gene and putting it into something more friendly – like a goat.
Spider-Goats
In an unlikely coupling, genetic engineers have now bred goats that have spider silk genes inside them. By doing this, they can harvest the silk proteins from the goat's milk (silky milk, anyone?). The silk gene was just one of 70,000 that make up the DNA blueprint for building a normal goat.
Goat's silky milk
In adult female goats, the silk gene is activated only while the animal is producing milk. One goat can produce about 7g of silk per day.
Spiders in space and surgery
Called 'biosteel', the silk is lighter, yet tougher than Kevlar, and nearly as elastic as nylon. It could be used in medical supplies, space equipment and bullet-proof vests.
So there's a new superhero in town. Swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, fighting crime as it shoots jets of silk from its udders, it's … Spider-Goat!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/superheroes/spiderman.shtml