From Gossamer to Geopolitics: Spider Silk as a Strategic Biomaterial

A Biological Asset Becomes a Twenty-First-Century Resource Spider silk—often referred to as gossamer—has transitioned from a scientific curiosity to a material of strategic consequence. Long celebrated for its extraordinary properties—stronger than steel by weight, tougher than Kevlar, highly elastic, lightweight, and environmentally resilient—it has historically remained beyond industrial reach due to the biological limitations of…