Cheryl Hayashi
Evolutionary Biology
Riverside
Evolutionary biologist and spider researcher Cheryl Hayashi is modest for someone whose research earned her a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.
That’s not to say Hayashi doesn’t appreciate pride. Specifically, hubris, that staple of Greek tragedy which caused ordinary mortals to flout the authority of the gods. Hayashi was amused when a reporter recounted the story of Arachne, who challenged Athena to a weaving contest.
By some accounts, Arachne was indeed a better weaver than the goddess. But Arachne’s irreverent depiction of the infidelities of the gods infuriated Athena. Athena’s curse led to Arachne’s death, but Athena reincarnated her as a spider, making sure the beast retained Arachne’s weaving ability.
It took thousands of years or so, but biologists in Hayashi’s field have come to the same conclusion that the Greeks arrived at intuitively: Spider webs have qualities that might well be called superhuman, if not actually godlike. Some forms of spider silk, as the threads are called, are stronger than steel.
Hayashi, a professor of biology at UC Riverside, is doing basic research on the evolution and composition of spider silk. Her work has garnered attention because of excitement over the prospect of using spider silk to develop materials that could revolutionize products such as surgical thread, body armor and green fabrics.
Hayashi, who has an affection for the hairy predators, hopes that the development of strong, supple materials using proteins from spider silk will lead to just a little more respect for a species that consistently vies with rats and cockroaches for the mantle of most disliked creatures.
See also: TED talk. Cheryl Hayashi: the magnificence of spider silk
Photo: UC Riverside Strategic Communications
Question:
How strong is spider silk?
Answer:
If you take into account how much material is there, certain kinds of spider silks are stronger than high-tensile steel. People wonder how that can be true when I can break a spider web with my hand. You have to think about the amount of material that’s there. It’s a combination of the silk and the architecture. You can tear a page out of a phone book but you can’t tear a phone book in half.
Question:
When the biologist J.B.S. Haldane was asked what his work told him about the mind of God, he reportedly said that God had an inordinate fondness for beetles, since there were 300,000 species of them. You could almost say that about spiders, couldn't you?
Answer:
Spiders have been around for 400 million years. That’s a heck of a long time. They’ve had a lot of opportunity to speciate. There are over 40,000 named species of spiders, but that’s obviously an underestimate because there are many species yet to be described.
Question:
Does your research focus on just a few of those 40,000 species?
Answer:
In my lab, we study many, many species of spiders. We do in-depth work on a few species but what truly fascinates me is diversity. I’m not prejudiced against any type of spider. They’re all welcome. As long as they’re big enough so we won’t go blind studying them.
Question:
The list of potential applications is impressive: superior surgical sutures and lighter, more flexible bulletproof vests. How do you get from basic science to useful product?
Answer:
You can’t rely on spiders to produce enough silk, or the right kind. They’re small and they can provide so many kinds of silk that you have to choose; you might not want the really stretchy one, or the really stiff one. Plus, raising spiders — it’s not like you can feed them from Whole Foods. They need live prey.
Question:
When will we be seeing spider silk bulletproof vests or climbing gear?
Answer:
I can’t say. You’ve got a lot of brains working on it. But I’m confident it will happen. These materials could be very strong, very flexible, all protein, and also biodegradable. They’re also made at ambient temperature, which is very different from the way they make nylon, for instance. This could be a green technology.
Question:
You're doing the basic research that helps provide the building blocks for some of these specific uses, aren't you?
Answer:
I’m working at it from the spider’s end of things. I’m an evolutionary biologist. I’m looking at the evolution of the silk genes. I’m not making bulletproof vests.
Question:
In light of your research, the myth of Arachne suggests that the Greeks had an inkling of the remarkable qualities of spider silk, doesn't it?
Answer:
The ancients had this intuition that spider silk was not only aesthetically beautiful and a feat to construct, but that it was something beyond what humans can create.
I don’t think humans can ever get to the point of doing what a spider does. We can replicate elements of it, but anybody who goes out and watches a spider build a web, the way they do it is so elegant, and that’s even more remarkable when you realize that they don’t have anything approaching our brain power. Some jump with their silks, some are careful, some fly through the air with little parachutes.
Question:
Are spiders neglected as a research topic?
Answer:
Let’s face it, spiders duke it out with snakes and rats for most despised organism. I just hope that what spider researchers are doing is showing people that the unloved species in the world have a tremendous amount to give us.
Question:
How do your undergraduates react to spiders?
Answer:
Talking about spiders and their silk is really a great paradigm for appreciating nature. The diversity is so incredible. Being a student is a great time to experiment, to be a sponge and open yourself up to all kinds of knowledge. Having a career studying spiders — I never would have thought about that when I was young.
Question:
As a girl, did you scream when you saw spiders?
Answer:
I wasn’t a big screamer. I didn’t particularly like them but I didn’t dislike them. Having the chance to look at spiders up close, I just fell in love.