Spider-Goats mark breakthrough in real-life Spider-Man webbing
By Daniel Wood
Spider-Man’s webbing is super strong, man-made material that can tie up bad guys, and in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films help him stop a moving train. That’s because in real life the webbing from an actual spider is pound for pound one of the strongest materials around. So, whilst Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker could nonchalantly rustle up some web-cartridges in his spare time, in real life there are tons of scientific companies trying to replicate and mass-produce spider silk for several amazing reasons.
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As the Chemical and Engineering News reports “Potential applications include cables and bulletproof vests. Spider silk’s antimicrobial properties make it suitable for wound patches. Because the silk is not rejected by the human body, it can be used to manufacture artificial tendons or to coat implants. And its thermal conductivity is similar to that of copper but its mass density is one-seventh of copper’s, making it a potential heat management material.”
As you can see spider silk has several incredible practical uses if it can be manufactured in such a way to make these things possible but so far the only commercial use seems to be from German company AMSilk who managed to produce half a ton for use in cosmetics and hair products, which are definitely not as cool as wound patches or bullet proof vests.
The problem with producing spider silk is that you’d need over 400 spiders to produce a square-yard of cloth and farming spiders is impractical because spiders are territorial and cannibalistic. However several companies have found a way around this by artificially producing the silk using science …. And goats …. But mainly science!
As you can see there are several companies attempting to crack the spider silk code with various different methods of manufacturing it. These companies have copied relevant genes from spiders and inserted them into organisms, such as Escherichia coli, that can express the protein.
AMSilk, Spiber and KAIST have used a form of E. Coli, which many will know as a deadly bacteria most often found in hospitals, to grow the protein for spider silk. Kraig Labs have used silkworms to create a hybrid spider-silkworm fiber. However, the most impressive is Araknitek’s use of goats, who produce the protein in their milk, which is then separated by purification, effectively making them spider-goats.
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