#like I can think of some other wns that kind of has a similar scale but they’re either bad or a little too brutal for me to rec

[obstinaterixatrix]

Ok. Ok. I might’ve jumped the gun on offering recs because in hindsight reading the list, it’s kinda. hm.

Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals?

Fair warning it’s been a while since I read this one (and I mtl’d like 80% of it) but it was a fun read. The premise is an actor for a live action adaption of the source material transmigrates into the novel and he doesn’t realize until later that there are some Key Differences in the adaption (novel’s gay lol). I think the first half is stronger than the second half, and there are some developments that are like… hm. It’s not objectionable but I do find it a little weird. Actually I’ve been meaning to reread it now that a full translation is out lol

The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader

This one’s going to be a bit of a weird rec because each chapter is very short, like super bite-sized. It’s like… rather than reading a novel someone’s telling you a story. But if you do get interested in the first few chapters, and the storytelling style doesn’t turn you away, it’s a fun read. I know this doesn’t sound good but it’s kind of surface-level in a way I think works well with the type of story the author is writing and the way they write it. Fair warning though the relationship development actually goes well into the extras, and I haven’t finished them because the original tl team stopped a year ago and I only realized just now that a different team picked it up and retranslated the whole thing so now I gotta read that. Oh wow I do not like the alt title translation. I think the first tl is a little easier to read. Sorry new tl’er,

Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect

I think this one will probably have the most similar tone/scope to mxtx and okay. okay. this is ALSO one I fell off because there was a pretty long break between chapter uploads at one point BUT what I read was pretty good and air’s been keeping up and I trust their taste. The romance enters pretty late into the story, there’s a lot of focus on found family and separation and grief etc. it’s very much… ragtag band of misfits start out by pummeling each other in their get along shirt and then they adopt a little sister. They Care So Much About Each Other.

okay. okay. okay. this technically isn’t a rec per se because at chapter 73 out of 81 it kind of drops the ball hard. but I do think the first 72 chapters of Let’s Talk About That Guy Who Transmigrated to Pursue Me are worth reading because 1) it’s rare to see transmigration from the pov of the novel character, 2) it’s rare for transmigration to really explore the transmigrator with like… the implications of a significantly damaged and desperate individual (I know you’re coming from orv so it’s not that out there for you, but in this context it’s interesting). However. The last eight chapters do escalate things severely then shoves the characters into a massive timeskip then has them get together at the last second without really addressing the relationship and character development it would take for them to reach that point. Which is a HUGE shame because the direction the writer seemed to want to take—developing the transmigrator to allow connection with other ‘characters’ as people rather than fixating solely on the main character—had a LOT of potential. If I could I would sit the author down and be like hey. I know your story wasn’t supposed to end like this. What Happened. However since I can’t do that I’m going to be wailing at air’s door until they finish their oc project and completely cure me of let’s talk brainworms.

hi i’m a random person you’ve never met before but you’re the only blog i follow that has read mxtx and orv and i need to talk to someone about this or i think i’ll explode

kdj x yjh has the vibes of an mxtx couple right. like i’m not going insane right.

I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong—I think a major aspect of mxtx’s work has the mc and li start out with very different frame of references for their relationship with the other person, and moving towards reconciling a more informed and connected view of each other (even tho kdj. somewhat drops the ball on that several times lol). At the same time, I don’t necessarily think that’s specific to mxtx. A lot of longform (somewhat) high stakes cn/(kr?) webnovels romance have something similar (whereas I don’t really know serialized eng works that reach that length/scale, but also I’m not really looking out for it). A lot of transmigration/time travel romances have a similar one-sided familiarity from the mc, and that growing devotion from the li. Or, I remember my friend was talking about an cn webnovel where the mc puts the li on a very tall pedestal and by the end the relationship develops to a point he’s able to meet him as more of an equal (acknowledging the li as an individual beyond that white moonlight framing). I think most of the similar vibes is a combination of mxtx being very good at executing her romantic dynamics, and that a fair amount of longform cn webnovel romances reach that reach fairly plot-driven scope and stakes.

[scifigeneration]

Spider glue's sticky secret revealed by new genetic research

by Sarah Stellwagen

What do all of the over 45,000 described spider species on Earth have in common? Each makes at least one type of silk. And there are an awful lot of types out there.

An individual orb weaving spider – the kind that spins the classic two-dimensional aerial spiral webs that seem to always be suspended at human face-height – can produce seven different silks, each with unique material properties.

Dragline silk forms the frame of an orb web and is famous for its strength and toughness, comparable to that of steel. The capture spiral is made of a highly stretchy version called flagelliform silk. Orb weaving spiders use an additional type of silk to wrap prey and create web decorations.

But there’s another kind that, on the surface, doesn’t resemble silk at all: the sticky glue with which some spiders cover their silk capture threads. It doesn’t look like the classic threads that come to mind when thinking of spider silk, but the gluey substance from these webs is in fact a silk protein.

For many years, researchers have been uncovering the secrets of spider glue, which stays wet in its open air environment and sticky over many rounds of attachment and release. Its genetic blueprint has remained elusive, however, meaning scientists haven’t been able to think about setting up large-scale production of this potentially useful biomaterial.

Using new technology, my colleague and I have been able to sequence the first full genetic sequences that code for spider glue proteins.

Spider glue drops spread along a strand of capture spiral silk. Sarah Stellwagen, CC BY-ND

A silk that’s really a sticky glue

Under a microscope, orb weaver glue resembles beads on a string – little glistening spheres along a strand of stretchy support silk. Instead of being spun into a fiber as it leaves the spider’s body like other silks, the glue proteins are extruded as a jumbled mass. Their job is to stickily retain prey that get caught in the web.

Different spider species produce glue tailored to their habitat’s conditions and prey.

The glue of tropical orb weaving species is sticky in the spider’s wet habitat, but downgrades to just tacky in low humidity. The glue of orb weavers from dry regions becomes dilute and thin if the humidity is too high.

Bolas spiders forgo the orb web, and instead produce a large globule of glue at the end of a long strand of silk that they whirl rapidly through the air. The glue of this sticky snare is specialized for capturing moths covered with loose scales.

Widow spiders produce vertical, glue-covered trip lines that detach from the ground when encountered by an unsuspecting victim, springing the prey into the air where it hangs suspended. Unlike orb weaver glue, widow glue is resistant to fluctuating humidity.

These various specialized adhesive properties have intrigued biomaterials researchers who can dream up plenty of uses for artificial versions of spider glues. But without knowing the genes that code for these proteins, there hasn’t been a clear road map for how to produce synthetic spider glues.

Their sticky glue is part of what makes spiders’ webs so hard to escape. Robert Mutch/Shutterstock.com

Cracking a long, repetitive code

Surprisingly, researchers have only sequenced around 20 full-length spider silk genes despite the incredible diversity of spiders and decades-old interest in silk as a useful biomaterial.

It turns out that not only are the properties of spider silk amazing, but so is the DNA code that stores the instructions for making the protein. Spider silk genes are extremely large; in itself that’s not a problem, but the bulk of their sequence is made from repeats of the same small DNA bits.

Imagine that the sentence “THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG” is a sequence of DNA that encodes for a protein, but whose exact order of letters is still unknown.

In order to discover this sequence, the main method of DNA sequencing technology available today has three main steps. Once a DNA sample is collected, many copies of the sentence are randomly broken up into small pieces. For example, you might end up with a collection of fragments like “THE QU” “QUICK B” “BROWN FO” “WN FOX J” “AZY DOG” and on and on.

Then a DNA sequencing machine discovers each letter of each piece. The final step is stitching all the short pieces, technically called “reads,” back together in one sequence to figure out the original sentence.

For the sentence above, this is an easy task. The sequence of letters is unique, and as long as there are at least five characters in each read, it’s possible to figure out where one fits relative to another.

Now imagine a similar sentence: “THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG.” Given many random short reads from the middle region like “UMPS J” or “S JUMP,” no matter how you slice and dice, it’s impossible to use this method to figure out the number of “JUMPS” in the complete sentence.

Sequencing a long read of DNA in one go

For many years DNA sequencing has been limited to this short-read strategy: breaking a gene into bits and then reassembling into one cohesive sequence.

Setting aside some difficult and expensive techniques that are out of reach for standard labs, the best way to fully discover a long, repetitive gene is to sequence the repetitive part from start to finish in one go. Fortunately, emerging technology, while still in its infancy, is starting to allow this long-read sequencing by getting around the chemistry limitations of the short-read method. For those that study super-repetitive DNA this is excellent news: New types of DNA sequencers are finally resolving the “JUMPS.”

Now that two spider glue genes are fully sequenced, the first step towards making a synthetic version is complete. Researchers can now insert the genes into other organisms, like bacteria or yeast, to make the glue in bulk.

Droplet of spider glue suspended on capture spiral silk (left) and after adhering to a glass slide (right). Sarah Stellwagen, CC BY-ND

Unlike solid silks, the glue proteins do not have to be transformed from a liquid to a solid fiber, something spiders do effortlessly but that scientists have trouble replicating. The glue has the potential for many unique applications and is biodegradable, water soluble and stays sticky for months or even years.

Imagine safer pest control or washable filters. Or frat boys wrestling in a kiddie pool of the stuff. Either way, someday soon it might be possible to reach your hand into a bucket of spider glue – the tricky part will be not sticking to whatever you touch next.

About The Author:

Sarah Stellwagen is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

The main image at the top of this article was changed to spare our arachnophobic friends the shock as they scrolled through the site.