Scientists are using spider silk to help develop surgical devices for nerve regeneration.
“It acts like a scaffold for nerves to grow along like a rose on a trellis,” Dr Alex Woods explains, holding threads of silk worthy of Spider-man.
Standing in a room with around 30 hand-sized golden orb-web spiders, he says it reminds him of his days studying for a PhD in Zoology – in fact, he’s a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon for the NHS in Oxford.