Observing Spider Silk

Ned was deeply disappointed that he had failed to invite Peter.

So, unwilling to give up, he began repeatedly "torturing" Peter.

First period: math.

Peter pretended to listen attentively while actually considering what he could use to discuss a partnership with Mr. Stark.

At that moment, Ned suddenly leaned over and whispered, "Have you met Tony Stark?"

"Of course. Otherwise, who would I be discussing a partnership with?" Peter gave him a strange look.

Second period: English.

Peter was still pretending to listen attentively, but he was actually thinking about how to find the Lizard Monster that had been harming people all over the city when he went to Amazing Spider-Man's place again that night.

At that moment, Ned secretly poked him in the back again. "When you complete a mission, does Mr. Stark say something like, 'Oh, Peter, you did very well. This gold coin is your reward'?"

Peter said, "Huh?"

Do you even hear yourself?

Third period: Chinese.

The teacher stood at the podium teaching the students how to say one, two, three, four, and thank you in Chinese, while Peter was thinking about how to establish Parker Industries.

—All right, this guy had been zoning out ever since school started that morning and had not stopped once.

But he could not be blamed. These classes were simply too boring.

He had learned all the material after looking over it just a few times, and he had even drawn further conclusions and formed additional insights of his own.

How was he supposed to pay attention when the teacher was teaching things he already knew?

Just as Peter was lost in thought, Ned's head leaned over again.

Peter gave this overly curious guy a speechless look, secretly deciding that he absolutely could not let him find out that he was Spider-Man.

A mere so-called "Stark Internship Program" had already stirred up such intense curiosity in Ned.

If he found out about Spider-Man, wouldn't he hound me to death?

Fourth period.

At last, it was the science class Peter had been eagerly waiting for.

Their science curriculum was somewhat like a combination of subjects such as physics, chemistry, geography, and biology in China. It covered a great deal, including Earth science, electronics, environmental science, forensic science, and more.

Thus, science classes were divided into foundational courses and advanced electives.

Generally speaking, taking only the foundational courses was enough.

However, Peter had originally planned to pursue a science and engineering major in college, so he needed to build a solid foundation during high school.

That was why science had also been one of the "required courses" he chose after enrolling.

And science naturally could not be separated from experiments.

Midtown High had ample funding. Its laboratories were stocked with an impressive variety of equipment, chemicals, and other experimental supplies, nearly comparable to those of some mid-sized private laboratories.

To make experiments convenient for students, whenever something ran out, the school immediately arranged for someone to purchase more and restock it.

Peter had taken an elective in materials science so that, while conducting material experiments, he could secretly take experimental chemicals to make the spider silk he needed.

This time, he made two kinds of spider silk.

One was the original spider silk he used himself, while the other was the spider silk used by Amazing Spider-Man.

He wanted to see what differences existed between Amazing Spider-Man's spider silk and his own.

Or whether they were the same.

In fact, after discovering that he had gained spider-like abilities, he had deliberately taken biology as an elective and carefully looked up a great deal of information related to spiders.

He learned that spiders were an enormous family with countless species. Different spiders could produce different kinds of silk, weave different webs, and employ different survival strategies.

Even the same spider could produce several different types of silk.

For example, a kind of spider called an orb-weaver could produce seven different kinds of spider silk.

Some were used for weaving webs, some for hunting, some for escaping, and some for weaving egg sacs.

If spiders in nature were already like this, then once spider abilities entered the human body, how could the spider silk of every different Spider-Man possibly be exactly the same?

And if he could analyze samples of the different spider silk produced by different Spider-Men, uncover their secrets, and determine the main factors behind their differences—morphological characteristics, amino acid composition and sequences, protein secondary structures, mechanical properties, physical properties, biological functions, and so on—

Perhaps he could develop a new type of biological fiber material, one that could be used to make lighter, more breathable biological fiber clothing, lighter but tougher biological fiber ropes, or even surgical sutures for closing wounds after operations.

Spider silk was arguably the natural fiber material with the best overall performance discovered to date!

Materials science had always been one of the most important components of modern science. Polymer materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, metal materials, composite materials, and more were applied to every aspect of modern human life.

Its industry prospects were extremely promising!

And this was what Peter had come up with after several classes of intense thought, something he could truly use to cooperate with Tony Stark!

Tony Stark had personally said that even he was amazed by the biological spider silk Peter had made himself.

A biomaterial that even Iron Man praised so highly should be able to earn Peter his first pot of gold, right?

Peter knew that the gold-titanium alloy used in Iron Man's Armor was actually a high-strength alloy invented by Iron Man himself.

After Stark Industries gave up the hugely profitable weapons manufacturing business, how could it still maintain such an enormous scale?

Ultimately, it came down to three areas.

Materials, energy, and medicine!

Energy referred to the Arc Reactor used in Iron Man's Armor, as well as the massive reactor built in Stark Tower. It included not only the reactor's clean and immense energy output, but also technologies such as high efficiency and low consumption during energy transmission.

That alone was enough to make Stark Industries a major giant.

In the medical field, Stark Industries owned numerous hospitals and possessed many medical laboratories. It even had black technology like the Cradle of Life, which incorporated Nanotechnology.

As for materials, aside from the gold-titanium alloy used in Iron Man's Armor, polymer composites, nanomaterials, and more were also Iron Man's technologies.

Peter did not dare think about the rest for now.

But making spider silk was something he excelled at.

Following the two formulas in his mind with practiced ease, Peter separately made his own spider silk and Amazing Spider-Man's spider silk. He then placed them on glass slides, made spider silk specimens, and observed them under a microscope.

Under an Olympuc C-35AD optical microscope, the biological characteristics of the spider silk were displayed clearly.

Peter also discovered that there really were differences between the two kinds of spider silk!