Doctor makes eerie-sounding violin from spider webs

We know that spider silk has unique properties with great potential for product development. For instance, the tensile strength of black widow silk indicates it could make nearly impermeable body armor. The problem is that when you tell a spider to produce more silk, it normally doesn't listen. But Shigeyoshi Osaki of Japan's Nara Medical University has been working on a method for obtaining large quantities from bred spiders. Dr. Osaki coaxed enough "dragline" silk from his spiders to produce four violin strings, each made with between 3,000 and 5,000 individual strands. Listen to the soft, eerie timbre of the silk strings in this BBC report.

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