Chinese Scientists have introduced an innovative, green alternative to nylon and Kevlar

  • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    Spider silk breakthroughs have been a tech news staple since the nineties, as far as I can remember.

    Never have seen a product that makes use of the special properties.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Production has been a real bottleneck. Also, I’m skeptical they got the actual strength right in this headline. It’s strong, but it’s still a biological material.

      Edit: Yeah, it’s half as strong per weight as a high-strength synthetic polymer, and weaker than normal steel on a volumetric basis. It stretches really far before it snaps though, which has implications for things like energy absorption.

  • Zagaroth@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    facepalm

    Well, we have a horror movie intro right in the article.

    Mi first realized that the experiment had been successful when he saw the silkworm’s eyes turning red under the microscope.

  • nyhetsjunkie@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Is it spider silk though? Can’t have gene edited spider silk without gene edited spiders. This is gene edited silkworm silk. Or am I missing something about silk?

    • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Yes, it’s spider silk. These silkworms are transgenic. Their silk-producing genes have been replaced by spider silk-producing genes.