I think the potential for growing these crystal fibers is much higher [than spider silk] because it's just about growing them to a particular size, i think this is going to be a much greater opportunity for materials that have high strength.
Limpets need high strength teeth to rasp over rock surfaces and remove algae for feeding when the tide is in, we discovered that the fibres of goethite are just the right size to make up a resilient composite structure.
Nature's kind of clever, because it figured out millions of years ago that if you grow these fibers below a critical size, even if you have flaws in the material, it doesn't affect the strength.
Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super strength and potential applications in everything from bullet proof vests to computer electronics, but now we have discovered that limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher.
![I think the potential for growing these crystal fibers is much higher [than spider silk] because it's just about growing them to a particular size, i think this is going to be a much greater opportunity for materials that have high strength.](/images/69229.jpg)
