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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Engineers work to duplicate materials used by superheroes
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:00
	Publish Date:		2016-03-16 00:00:00
	Description:		Mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside is an unabashed fan of comics – he’s even called an expert on the science of superheroes. Take his favorite, Spiderman, for example. "In the original Spiderman comics, he did not have webs shooting out of any specific glands or any powers that let him make web inside his body. As a chemistry student, he was forced to experiment and make his own super-strong web-like material. What’s very interesting about it is there’s a lot of research that’s now showing that real spider web is extremely strong. So in a way, Spiderman was ahead of his time in designing some of the these materials that just now we’re trying to duplicate with carbon nanotube wires and other high-strength fiber-like materials." Mathaudhu explains that these types of materials are lighter, too and that can benefit transportation applications. "If we can get lighter and stronger, then we get more fuel-efficient as we move to a more energy sustainable economy."
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