Spiders don’t make good domestic animals, and not many like walking into their webs in the garden, but scientists dream of a future where spider silk may revolutionise medicine
remember doing a presentation on spider silk for my year nine science class. Like all good high school assignments, it involved a last-minute flurry of writing things half-remembered from a newspaper article that I had already lost.
Spider silk weaving is still immensely cost prohibitive; this shimmering golden cape is one of only two pieces of clothing woven from spider silk and are, essentially, priceless.A model wears Nicholas Godley and Simon Peers’ golden spider silk cape.Spider silk properties are as miraculous as they sound. The dragline silk of orb web spiders can absorb more energy than bulletproof Kevlar and can bounce back into shape without losing its elasticity.
Spiders don’t make good domestic animals. They are small animals that make very small amounts of silk. Even spiders harmless to humans can be territorial and cannibalistic, so keeping them in captivity isn’t as simple as putting them out to pasture.shifted focus from using natural spider silk, to culturing lab-grown artificial silk. For some this meant brewing genetically engineeredbacteria in industrial-scale vats.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tim Dowling: my sons have left the house, to be replaced by spidersIt has not been that long since the last of our sons left the nest – but I am not handling it well
Read more »
UK economy makes stronger recovery from pandemic than first thoughtRevisions to figures show stronger performance than Germany and France but momentum starts to stall
Read more »
UK economy makes stronger recovery from pandemic than first thoughtRevisions to figures show stronger performance than Germany and France but momentum starts to stall
Read more »
Meta’s new devices show us what our future could look likeWe try on the new smart glasses and Quest 3 VR headset, which are very small steps towards the metaverse.
Read more »