Think about this: Wherever you're sitting right now, chances are there's a spider nearby.

試著想想這情況：不論你現在坐在何處，你身邊很有可能就有一隻蜘蛛

Which means there's also a spider web.

也代表那理有個蜘蛛網

And you should be excited about that, because spider silk is awesome.

而你應該為此感到興奮，因為蜘蛛絲是個很驚人的東西

Spiders manufacture something stronger, stretchier, or stickier than just about anything humans have engineered.

蜘蛛製造了一些比人類設計的還要更堅固、更有延展性或是更黏稠的東西

A thread of spider silk is nearly invisible, which is why you've probably walked through it with your face.

一條蜘蛛絲幾乎是看不見的，這就是為什麼你常常走過一條蜘蛛絲並讓它黏在你臉上

Yet when it comes to strength, some spider silk fibers rival steel and Kevlar.

可是當談到強度，有些蜘蛛絲纖維可以和鋼鐵以及克維拉纖維對抗

Imagine this: A silk cord about the diameter of a garden hose could hold up a passenger jet.

想像一下：一股花園水管般大小的絲製細繩可以拉起一架客機

So how does such a tiny animal weave such an amazing material using nothing but its rear end?

所以一隻如此小的動物怎麼能只用它的身體尾端就編織出如此驚人的材料

I wanted to find out, so I went to the American Museum of Natural History to meet Dr. Cheryl Hayashi,

我想要找到原因，所以我去了美國自然史博物館拜訪 Cheryl‧Hayashi 博士

who's maybe the world's #1 expert in the science of spider silk.

她可能是世界上在蜘蛛絲科學領域最精通的專家

Everybody knows that spiders make silk, but I don't think most people realize just how

大家都知道蜘蛛會產絲，但我不覺得他們瞭解

many kinds of silk spiders make.

蜘蛛會產出幾種絲

There's over 46,000 described species of spiders – and most spiders make four, five,

現在已知的蜘蛛品種超過 46,000 大部分蜘蛛都能製造 4、5

six, seven, eight kinds of silk.

6、7 或 8 種絲

So if you do the math, it's huge!

所以如果你試算一下，種類是很龐大的！

So this is Nephila clavipes, the golden orb-weaver, and she can make seven different types of silk.

它的學名是 Nephila clavipes，屬於金蛛屬，她可以製造 7 種不同的絲

Seven different kinds of spider silk?

7 種不同的蜘蛛絲？

In that tiny little body?

在這個小身體裡？

Yeah!

沒錯！

Well, some people don't think it's a tiny little body…

好吧，有些人不覺得她的身體很小

It's not the smallest spider I've ever seen!

這還不是我見過最小的蜘蛛！

When you look at the golden orb weaver's trademark web, you're actually looking at

當你看著金蛛屬標誌性的網時，其實你看到的是

several different types of silk.

7 種不同類型的絲

There's the dragline silk: The spider drags it behind like a climber's safety rope.

這是牽引絲線：蜘蛛的後端會拉著這條線，就像攀岩者的安全繩索一樣

It also makes up the web's outer frame.

這也是蜘蛛網的外圍架構

There's one silk to guide the web's construction.

還有一種絲主要負責整個網的結構

The spiral that traps prey, is actually a mix of two more silks: A stretchy silk covered

這個捕食獵物的螺旋陷阱，其實還有兩種絲混合而成：一種是彈性絲上面覆蓋

in a sticky glue-like silk on top.

像膠水一樣的黏稠絲

There's a cement-like silk to attach the web to whatever it's hanging on.

還有一種水泥般的絲，讓網子能掛在任何它所要附著的地方

There's a silk for wrapping up prey.

把獵物包起來的又是另一種絲

They even wrap their eggs in silk.

牠們也會把蛋包在絲裡

Seven different silks, all made by one spider.

７ 種不同絲都是由同一種蜘蛛做成

So what exactly is this stuff?

所以準確地說，這到底是甚麼東西？

Spider silk is made of proteins, and the dominant proteins inside a silk fiber are these specialized

蜘蛛絲是由蛋白質組成，絲纖維中最主要的蛋白質就是這些特殊化類別

category of proteins called spidroins, which stands for spider fibroins, that are unique to spiders.

的蛛絲蛋白，代表蜘蛛的絲蛋白，是蜘蛛特有的

Inside the body, all of the silk glands have liquid protein in them.

在蜘蛛體內所有的絲蛋白分泌腺裡都有液態蛋白

So it's liquid protein, and when I dissect a spider and I take out a silk gland, and

所以它是液態蛋白，而當我解剖一隻蜘蛛並拿出絲蛋白分泌腺

I break the gland open, it has the consistency of honey!

而且我打開分泌腺後，裡面有著濃稠的甜味物質

It's a viscous, gooey substance that's in there.

是一種有黏性的、膠黏的物質在裡面

And it's highly-concentrated silk protein.

它是很高濃度的絲蛋白

It kind of makes you wonder what an anatomically correct Spider-Man would look like.

你可能會想知道在解剖學上蜘蛛人理當長什麼樣子

The raw ingredients for every protein chain are twenty amino acids, and the recipes for

每個蛋白質鏈是由 20 個胺基酸組成，這些蛋白質鏈的配方

these chains are coded in genes.

存在基因編碼中

The order of amino acids in these chains determine what a protein looks like, and what it will do.

胺基酸在蛋白質鏈的排序決定這個蛋白質的性質，以及它有什麼功用

And spider silk proteins are built in a very special way.

蜘蛛絲蛋白是用一種很特別的方式生成

Imagine a silk molecule like a long train, made up of different boxcars.

想像一個絲分子就像一列很長的火車，有不同車廂組成

Inside each type of boxcar is a string of amino acids.

在每一個車廂都是一列胺基酸

In any one type of silk, we see the same boxcars over and over all the way along the train.

任何一種絲，我們都可以視為一列無止盡的火車

This unique pattern is what makes each silk so specialized.

這樣獨特的形式使每一種絲都有它特殊作用

Spiders have cooked up some equally specialized ways to use these silks.

不同的蜘蛛也打造了一樣特別的方式來使用這些絲

Like the trapdoor spider, which weaves a camouflaged shelter from silk.

像暗門蜘蛛，會用絲編織出一個偽裝的藏匿處

The ogre spider, that it casts out a silk net like a fisherman.

鬼面蛛科會像漁夫一樣擲出一個絲做的網

Or the redback spider, who weaves a trap in the form of sticky spring-loaded snares.

或是紅背蜘蛛，牠們會編織一種具有彈性的膠黏陷阱

Other spiders shoot venom-laced deadly silly string silk.

還有其它蜘蛛會像噴彩罐一樣射出混有致命毒素的絲線

Small spiders can even ride the winds on silk sails, a trick called “ballooning” that

小型蜘蛛甚至可以靠著絲線御風而行，這個小伎倆稱為「空飄」

can carry them kilometers into the sky.

可以帶牠們飛到幾公里的上空

To find the origins of spider silk, we have to go a long way back.

要找到蜘蛛絲的起源，我們需要追溯到好久以前

This is fossil amber, it's from a Burmese deposit, and there's a spider in here, and

這是琥珀化石，是從緬甸的礦床找到的，裡面有一隻蜘蛛

this is 100 million years old.

牠是 1 億年前的蜘蛛

Do you want to touch a 100-million-year-old spider?

你想摸摸 1 億歲的蜘蛛嗎？

I need to be very careful.

我要非常小心

I'm holding a piece of the world from 100 million years ago, and there's a spider

我正握著 1 億年前的世界中的一份子，而這裡面的蜘蛛

in there that was already making silk like spiders do today?

在當時就已經像現在的蜘蛛一樣產絲了嗎？

Yes.

對

100 million years old!

1 億年了！

I can keep this, right?

我可以留著吧？

-Sorry about that! -It'll be our secret.

- 我很抱歉！ - 這是我們的小祕密

Here's another fossil spider, this one's not quite as old: only 20 million years old.

還有其他化石蜘蛛，這一個沒有那麼久遠：只有 2 千萬年那麼久

Only 20-million-years-old?

「只有」 2 千萬年？

Practically yesterday!

幾乎可以說是昨天生成的！

This one is just beautiful.

這一個真的很美

I mean, you can see the spider inside.

我意思是，你可以看到裡面的蜘蛛

It's posing like a spider!

牠完全擺出蜘蛛的姿態！

It knew that we would find it one day, and it was like, “I'm gonna give them a really good pose.

牠知道我們總有一天會找到牠，所以牠就像是在說「我要給他們一個好看

I'm going to do my best spidering.”

我要擺出最棒的蜘蛛姿態。」

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

感謝你，我真的很感激！

But Dr. Hayashi doesn't just study how spiders evolved and how they make silk.

但 Hayashi 博士不是只研究蜘蛛如何進化以及牠們如何產絲

She also studies its mechanical properties.

她也研究蜘蛛絲的機械力學性質

If you're picturing her pulling on spider silk with tiny tweezers, you're not far off.

如果你有看到她用小夾具拉扯蜘蛛絲的樣子，你大概就懂了

This is one strand of dragline silk, that what's on this card.

這是一股牽引絲，就在這張卡上

She unweaves these single silk strands by hand, and mounts them into a special machine

她用手解開這些單獨的絲，然後裝上一部特殊的機器

to test how much pulling it can take before it breaks.

來測試在它斷掉前能承受多大拉力

And you can see there's a fiber connecting that.

你可以看到這理有個纖維連結上下端

So the only thing connecting this part of the machine: this clamp to this clamp, is the silk fiber.

所以這是連結這台機器上下端的唯一東西：上半段夾子到下半段夾子中，就是用這條絲纖維連結

Can we pull on it?

我們可以拉了嗎？

We can pull on it!

我們可以拉了！

We're going to break this spider silk so good.

我們要來拉斷這條蜘蛛絲了

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

(懸疑音樂)

Weight for weight, almost nothing we humans have invented is as strong, as stretchy, or

以同等質量的東西來說，我們人類幾乎沒有發明出能跟某些蜘蛛絲一樣強韌、一樣有高延展性或是

absorbs energy as well as some spider silks.

能吸收能量的東西出來

So naturally, we're trying to figure out how to manufacture and weave this stuff for ourselves.

所以很自然地，我們想要瞭解怎麼製造和編織這樣的東西來使用

The approach is you take the spider silk gene, and you move that silk gene into another organism

方法是你取得蜘蛛絲的基因，然後把絲基因轉移到其他有機體上

such as bacteria, a plant, a silk worm, or even goats.

像細菌、植物、蠶、甚至山羊身上

Goats… like?

山羊 ... 像是？

Where is it coming out of the goats?

山羊的哪部分會表現出這個基因？

So in the goat, it actually comes out, it's expressed in the mammary gland.

所以在山羊身上，其實牠會表現出來，會表現在乳腺上

So it comes out with the milk.

所以會表現在山羊奶裡面

What happens if you drink that milk?

如果妳喝了這樣的山羊奶會發生什麼事？

Do you get special powers?

妳會有超能力嗎？

Um, I haven't tried that myself.

呃，我還沒自己試過

I'm going to market spider silk milk goat cheese.

我要來賣蜘蛛絲山羊奶起司

You heard it first!

妳是第一個聽到的！

Spider goat silk is still experimental, but it shows us something really amazing about the power of evolution.

蜘蛛山羊絲還在實驗階段，但這也為我們展現出進化的驚人成果

With all our tools, and all of our knowledge we haven't invented a material as awesome as spider silk.

我們有如此多的工具、如此多的知識，我們卻還沒發明出一個跟蜘蛛絲一樣了不起的材料

We're still no match for millions of years worth of nature's experiments.

我們仍舊不敵百萬年來在大自然實驗中生存的對手

Well, I made a new friend.

嗯，我交了個新朋友

I made two new friends.

是兩個新朋友

[SPIDER NOISES]

(蜘蛛聲響)

She's like, waving to the camera.

她就像在跟攝影機招手

You know, that's what they say about spiders, you put a camera on them.

你知道嗎，那就是他們在說的，放個攝影機在牠們前面

I know!

我懂！

Hamming it up!

誇張！

Hamming it up.

誇張

She's saying "Hi Mom!"

牠在說：「嗨，老媽！」