Parachutes could one day soon be made out of spider webs, according to researchers in Italy and the UK.

The silk spun by spiders combines great strength with lightness and flexibility, as any flying insect will testify, but scaling those qualities up to where webs can hold humans has until recently seemed fanciful.

Now, however, scientists led by Nicola Pugno at Italy's University of Trento have succeeded in combining spider silk with graphene and carbon nanotubes, producing a composite material five times stronger.

Remarkably, the composite is produced by the spider itself, after first drinking water containing the nanotubes.