New Scientist: Spider Silk Delivers Finest Optical Fiber

New Scientist magazine reports that researchers at the University of California at Riverside have created the finest hollow optical fibers to date by using the silk from Nephila madagascariensis, the giant orb-weaving spider of Madagascar. The hollow optical fiber has a core of just two nanometres wide and potentially could be used in future, nanoscale optical circuits. New Scientist reports that hollow, spider-based fiber offers a wider range of structures and can be more easily shaped than carbon nanotubes, which have also be researched for this potential application.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993522