Surprising strength of silkworm silk

Commercial silkworm silk is presumed to be much weaker and less extensible than spider dragline silk, which has been hailed as a 'super-fibre'. But we show here that the mechanical properties of silkworm silks can approach those of spider dragline silk when reeled under controlled conditions. We suggest that silkworms might be able to produce threads that compare well with spider silk by changing their spinning habits, rather than by having their silk genes altered.     

考虑次网格水文过程的区域气候水文耦合方法

针对气候-水文耦合模型采用的计算网格较粗,不能很好地描述小尺度陆面水文过程的不足,以美国萨斯奎那西支子流域为研究区域,构建了考虑水力传导度和降雨次网格空间非均匀性的区域气候-水文耦合模型,从而在较粗的计算网格中描述较细的小尺度次网格水文过程.数值模拟结果表明,考虑次网格水文过程的耦合模型精度更高,模拟径流过程与实测过程拟合更好,并且提高了模型对水文物理过程的代表性.