1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth

[conuly]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/spider-silk/

Yeah, the title pretty much sums up this article.

Comments

Wow.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link; I'm always interested in textiles and science intersecting.

I can't help but wonder--the article says that they have problems (“When we talk about a spider spinning silk, we’re talking about how the spider applies forces to produce a physical transformation from liquid to solid,” said spider silk expert Todd Blackledge of the University of Akron, who was not involved in creating the textile. “Scientists simply can’t replicate that as well as a spider does it. ).

As I recall, with the production of rayon and soy silk, scientists are getting pretty damned close. Applying the spinning methods they use to produce rayon etc. should give a close approximation.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

That is SO cool! We saw lots of Golden Orb spiders when we were in Madagascar, but I had no idea their silk could be harvested.

Here's a picture that I took of one of the orb spiders that lived outside the second-to-last hotel in our stay.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

...it is missing a leg!!!

[tungol.livejournal.com]

Hi, I drop by your journal from time to time (you're LJ-friends with pne and siderea, both of whom I read) and generally find that you have interesting things to say, but have generally been a bit timid to comment.

But today I want to say, this is really neat - I've thought about spider silk cloth before but obviously hadn't heard of it actually being done, since it hadn't been. I would never have expected that spider silk in large quantities (at least from one spider type) would be golden