ChemMatCARS is a high-brilliance national synchrotron x-ray facility dedicated primarily to static and dynamic condensed matter chemistry and materials science.
The scientific focus of the facility includes the study of surface and interfacial properties of liquids and solids as well as their bulk structure at atomic, molecular and mesoscopic length scales with high spatial and energy resolution.
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Secrets of
Lacewing Silk
Researchers from Australia’s CSIRO used wide-angle x-ray scattering to answer long-standing questions about the structure of lacewing silk. Female lacewings use delicate silk “stalks” to to suspend their eggs out of the reach of predators.
The silk’s cross-beta structure allows it to be stretched to nearly 500% of its length before breaking. Because of their tiny size, the stalks could be characterized only at a facility such as ChemMatCARS.
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