Under the microscope, Peter saw that the structure of the two spider silks was roughly the same, and both were similar to the silk produced by black widow spiders.
Peter had read that scientists from the University of California, Riverside, had studied the genetic code of black widow spider silk. They found that it contained two key proteins, Masp1 and Masp2, which are serine proteases involved in the lectin pathway for complement activation.
However, the substance similar to Masp present in the spider silk used by the two Spider-Men was more obscure and profound than what spiders in nature produce. It seemed almost magical! This made Peter suspicious – could the source of the Spider-Men's abilities involve not just science, but also something metaphysical?
Unfortunately, although the school laboratory had plenty of equipment, Peter couldn't research this further at the moment. He wrote down his idea to investigate it more deeply when he had the chance.
Later, Peter found a single-fiber electronic dynamometer in the lab. He had a similar device at home – an old, bulky computer that Iron Man jokingly called "old-school tech." This big computer had a motor hidden in its base that allowed Peter to measure the strength of his own spider silk by manually clamping it.
Oh, by the way, the Amazing Spider-Man also had a device like this in his small workshop. There was one shown in the movie, a small one with what looked like a monitor on the side. Check it out if you're interested!
Obviously, studying spider silk was a natural hobby and commonality that all Spider-Men shared.
However, compared to Peter's old manual version and the Amazing Spider-Man's low-end one, the school's dynamometer was much more advanced. It used pneumatic clamping, where the air flow could be adjusted for slow clamping and release, minimizing damage to the material being tested. This made the deformation process more controllable and allowed for detailed observation.
With his manual version at home, Peter had to constantly focus on controlling the strength of his muscles and hands while also making observations – very tiring! So he preferred to do these experiments at school if he could. No one questioned what he was doing anyway.
The teachers didn't really monitor what individual experiments the students were conducting. His classmates were busy with their own work and rarely bothered him, except for his friend Ned.
"Peter, what are you studying?" Ned asked.
"Uh, a Stark internship project on composite fiber materials," Peter replied, satisfied with this excuse that let him blame anything on Iron Man if needed.
"Oh~" Ned realized then that no wonder he couldn't make sense of what Peter was doing after watching for a while – Ned was good with electronics and programming, not biological materials. He turned back to his own work.
Peter continued experimenting with the dynamometer, clearly demonstrating the mechanical properties of the spider silks. He found that compared to his silk, the Amazing Spider-Man's was tougher with higher breaking strength. But correspondingly, it had less elasticity and lower elongation at break.
In summary: The Amazing Spider-Man's silk was stronger and harder, able to withstand more force. However, it had sacrificed some elasticity, so its ability to absorb impacts was reduced. If used to stick to objects or people, they would feel more of that force transferred compared to Peter's stretchy webbing.
Because the total force is the same – part of it is relieved by Peter's silk's elasticity, so less gets transferred to whatever it's sticking to.
But this level of detail likely wasn't that practically useful.
Next, Peter used other lab instruments to study the silks further. He found their density was similar to insect silks, but lower than high-performance fibers like Kevlar and much less dense than steel.
This discovery meant he might actually be able to use spider silk to make clothes! By adjusting the rigidity and adding other elements while sacrificing some performance, perhaps they could create a polymer fiber or even a superior composite material better than existing ones!
After studying the materials, Peter quietly took apart the pneumatic dynamometer when the teacher wasn't looking, mentally committing its internal structure to memory. When traveling to other Spider-Men's worlds in the future, he would definitely encounter more different types of spider silk.
It would be impossible to wait for an experimental class every time to study them, right? So he decided to find a way to upgrade his manual version at home into a pneumatic one after returning. Even if not as good as the school's, it should have at least 70-90% of its capabilities!
The experimental class ended with Peter quite busy – though not with the actual class content itself. But could doing an independent experiment really be called "zoning out"? He was working towards the betterment of science and technology for all mankind!
Ahem.
The rest of the day was uneventful, except for Flash – an annoying guy who liked to seek attention by showing off in front of Peter regularly. As for Flash, he was just a jerk who weirdly was Spider-Man's biggest fan!
Flash wore Spider-Man prints on his clothes, hid Spider-Man pictures in his bag, and often caused trouble for the upstanding masked hero Peter. What a fanatical "sasaeng" fan – even though he didn't know Peter's true identity.
What could Peter do about this? He could only forgive Flash!
Peter never expected to gain such an enthusiastic fan so soon after becoming Spider-Man. And for that fan to be his own classmate was even more unexpected!
Sometimes Peter considered suiting up as Spider-Man, appearing in front of Flash, and then suddenly unmasking to let Flash know his identity and give him a good scare.
Uh-huh, of course, just thinking about it.
(end of chapter)