Silk

[Kritters]

And who needs a cocoon when we have human bodies?

Okay, this may be nothing. But it's still worth putting out the info so we see just how much bio-engineering is really going on. Hey, it's not the engineering I mind when it is benevolent. It's the research they stuff down the john I mind.

Here is something I found on the net after reading about it in the book DNA which mentioned it.

Potential commercial applications for spider silk are unsurprisingly prodigious: medical, military and even domestic areas are being targeted for spider silk.

Producing it in commercially viable quantities is not without its problems, however. Due to their cannibalistic nature spiders cannot be farmed in large numbers.

Research has therefore, focused heavily on producing silk without spiders but by mimicking the spiders’ own spinning technique. From silk-producing goats to tiny bacteria genetic engineering is one solution. Another is to use other insect silks but “tweak” them to achieve a fibre with spider-like silk properties.

Recent advances in our understanding of its structure and the spinning process indicate that scientists are on the verge of harnessing technologies for its mass production.

Quentin talks to Dr. David Knight, Chief Scientific Officer for Oxford Biomaterials who tweak silk worm silk to make Spidrex® a silk which has applications in medicine.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/...20061109.shtml

What they have done is use bacteria to produce silk rather than the worm.

Outsourcing is more of a problem than we thought.

Kritts

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00004/art00007

http://www.jircas.affrc.go.jp/kankoubutsu/jarq/34-2/shirata/34-2(.htm