Modelling Biopolymers - 2

The polypeptide chain of the semi-amorphous region of spider-silk (which is stronger than steel, when the modulus is normalized by the density) is modelled via sampling conformations (programming using Fortran, etc.) of the peptide bonds, to estimate the macroscopic elasticity behavior of the spider-silk fiber. The computation/simulation results are analysed via statistical mechanical methods, employing symbolic computation software such as Mathematica.