“This
fabric can be used in various industries, such as automobiles and medicine. It
is a major first step toward a manufacturing process that does not depend on
petroleum”
Excerpt from an
interview with Spiber President Kazuhide Sekiyama by The Asahi Shimbun
newspaper on May 25th 2013
Despite
what you’ve heard Spider Silk, which has a tensile strength of 1GPa (Giga
Pascal) is not stronger than Steel, which on average has a tensile strength of
0.5 to 2GPa, depending on the composition of the alloys used to make the Steel.
Rather it’s has the same tensile strengths but with lower density as noted in
the article “Spider
Silk is a wonder of nature, but it's not stronger than steel”, published
Jun 07, 2013 by Michelle Oyen, Phys.org.
So
please dispel that myth; it just ain’t so!
But
Spider Silk, a protein like Hair is truly special. This is thanks in part to
Nature’s efficiency in making materials at the nanoscopic level from Hydrogen,
Oxygen and Carbon instead of using vast amounts of energy as we humans do to
forge such materials as steel to which Spider Silk is often compared. So the
quest to make Spider Silk commercially continues as noted in “Tangled webs: Why scientists
want to recreate Spider Silk”, published 20 March 2013 Last updated at
11:21 By Christopher Brooks, BBC Scotland.
Many
have tried and failed at producing Spider Silk from Spiders, who are mainly
territorial creatures who fight against each other and cannot be made to
produce Silk on demand like domesticated sheep produce wool. Spiders spin their
silk from a protein called fibroin. The protein emerges from their abdomen via
a spinning wart and dries on contact with air to form a fibre that crystalline
yet flexible, waterproof. Spider Silk has found few applications already such
as crosshairs in Gun sights as well as use in Dressings splints for cuts and
fishing lines.
It
main properties, that being lower density and high strength makes it attractive
for making things such as high performance clothing to bullet proof vests
lighter and stronger than Kevlar as noted in Popular Mechanic’s 6
Spider-Silk Superpowers Slideshow!
But
recently a few brave researchers have been quietly succeeding thanks to the use
of a new tool: Genetic Engineering. Their ideas are cleverly simple; instead of
using man-made macroscopic methods of making this elusive material, they
genetically modify other organisms to produce the Spider Silk on demand and in
commercially viable quantities.
The
first such successful attempts were done by USTAR (Utah Science Technology and
Research Initiative) Professor Randy Lewis of Utah State University back in August 2012 as
stated in the article “USTAR
Researcher Randy Lewis Developing Ancient Biomaterial for the Future”,
published Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, Utah State
University News. Professor Randy Lewis was using the following to create
artificial Spider Silk:
1. Transgenic
Goats
2. Transgenic
Escherichia Coli Bacteria
3. Transgenic
Alfalfa
4. Transgenic
Silk Worms
The
Transgenic Goats produced Spider Silk Proteins but assembling them into Spider Silk
with the same tensile strength proved difficult.
However,
more recently in February 2013, USTAR Research Professor Randy Lewis, who has
been working on developing methods of manufacturing Spider Silk for the past
three decades and holds a eight (8) patents relating to Transgenic methods used
to produce Spider Silk proteins and Araknitek Artificial Spider Silk for
commercial usage as described in Spinning
a Stronger Future: Arakniteck Creates Synthetic Spider Silk, viewed July
1st 2013, USTAR, has persevered.
He’s
published a series of books describing his misadventures with the transgenic
critters, which kiddies obviously love as much as Charlotte’s web as noted in “USU's Spider Silk
Research Spawns a Web of Literary Offerings”, published Thursday, Feb. 28,
2013, Utah State University News.
More
recently in January 2013, USTAR Professor Randy Lewis in collaboration with Dr.
Malcolm Fraser from the University of Notre Dame has succeeded with Transgenic Silkworms
and has created a synthetic blend of Spider Silk and Silkworm Silk as reported
in “Genetically
Engineered Silkworms Spin Like Spiders”, published February 11, 2013 03:00
AM ET, Discovery News.
While
not as strong as Spider Silk, it bests SilkWorm Silk and is thus commercially
viable as it uses the same machinery of Silkworms to make Spider-SilkWorm Silk!
It still holds the potential to become genuine Spider Silk by the introduction
of even stronger Spider Silk Genes from the Darwin's Bark Spider (Caerostris
darwini).
More
recently, however, some Spider silk Researchers at a Japanese startup Spiber
have succeeded in using Transgenic Bacteria to make spider silk which they call
Qmonos (from kumonosu or “spider web” in Japanese) as stated in the
article “Dress
to kill in this synthetic spider silk outfit”, published May 26, 2013 12:55
PM PDT by Tim Hornyak, CNET News and “Ready
to web: The ultra strong dress made from synthetic SPIDER SILK” published
27 May 2013 UPDATED: 16:28 GMT, 27 May 2013 By Rachel Reilly, Mail Online.
Dr.
My Hedhammar of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Director of
R&D at Spiber Technologies in Uppsala are behind the success on this
frontier of Spider Silk Research using Transgenic Escherichia
Coli Bacteria. In patent No. 8,278,416 as described in the article “Patent
Watch: Man-Made Spider Silk”, published June 1, 2013 By Marissa Fessenden, Scientific American they detail:
1. Two
(2) modified spider silk proteins
2. Describe
how they can be coaxed to self-assemble
Clearly
the picture Electric Blue Cocktail Dress below it proves that the technology of
Spiber not only works. A victory for all fashionistas but also for business
interest looking to commercialize Spider Silk Production!
This
is now the case with Spider, which has contracted Kojima Industries to build a
plant to crank out 220 pounds of the synthetic silk a month and 10 tons of
spider silk a year by 2015 as reported in
the Japanese Newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun in the article “Company
develops technology to mass-produce 'spider silk' fabric”, published May
25, 2013 By TARO MIZOGUCHI/ Staff Writer, The
Asahi Shimbun.
Two
Scientific ventures, one American and One Japanese have succeeded where other
have failed. USTAR Research Professor Randy Lewis has succeeded in making
synthetic Spider-Silkworm Silk from Transgenic Silkworms, which already may be
commercially viable and now Spiber has succeeded in developing Qmonos Spider
silk from Transgenic Escherichia Coli
Bacteria.
Spider
Silk is the next big trend in Fabrics which means I’m Out Ciara and Nikki Minaj
Style!
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