Nanoparticles from the secretion of velvet worms form recyclable polymer fibers. Some animals produce amazing materials. Spider silk ... the slime to harden into stiff filaments," explains ...

Spider silk, for example ... prey’s struggles cause the slime to harden into stiff filaments,” explains Alexander Bär, a doctoral student at the University of Kassel, who is studying under the ...

The velvet worm is pretty ... transforms into a stiff and glassy fiber. This liquid-to-solid transformation is very unusual ...

But once it touches the target, it hardens almost immediately into a stiff ... the silk of spiders, for example, are highly structured – a long way from the disordered mess within the velvet ...