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Scientists Crack Silk's Secret
AEton writes "Researchers at Tufts University have reportedly discovered the mechanism by which spidersilk is produced. Besides the obvious use as a Kevlar substitute in bulletproof vests, silk has applications in microprocessor production, nanoscale optical fiber, a and any other application requiring strength and flexbility. Scientists have long grappled with the issue of creating silk; artificial silk is inferior to the real stuff, and the spiders can't be farmed (when you put them too close together, they eat each other). The method these Tufts researchers have found makes "strong silk" production feasible; if they can make it economical, the impact on safety equipment alone makes this material a worthwhile investment."
however, i'm sure spiderman gave 'em a tip on the secret behind the silk.
You are confusing me with someone who cares.
the spiders can't be farmed (when you put them too close together, they eat each other)
:-(
Why can't everybody be nice to each other ??
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
So does this mean we're going to start arming the cops with spidersilk so they can assist Spiderman in his pursuit of justice? Cool!
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
Let's just hope the spiders don't use the DMCA against the scientists.
fuck! not again dude, its totally time to dump those shares in First Mandarin Silk Co.
Do you honestly think anyone EVER seriously considered farming spiders for their silk? The idea of unimaginable numbers of spiders all together is chilling even to the bravest of us. And of course they'd discover that black widows or brown recluses or giant bird spiders produced the strongest silk, and then they would escape....
*shudder*
...
Next up, Seth Industries & Automobiles! Silksteel cars with diamond windshields and pistons and of course a dimensional warp generator!
Hate me!
However, you can't have too many silk researchers working on the project - when you put them too close together, they eat each other.
Yes, finally! We can start producing super-strong silk boxers to protect all us sexy geeks from the swarms of girls outside our rooms. Personally, I'm all for reducing user latency in the kernel and reading the latest rant by RMS, but *indestructable silk boxers* get me really excited. I'm blowing through several pairs a week when I leave the dark, secluded safety of my room to get more gin and tonic at the store. I certainly can't make the swarm go away, but this takes care of a symptom!
I can't wait til they "ruin" the automobile market with artifically manufactored BMW 745 LIs for $20 bucks. I'm gonna be pimpin.
I don't suppose it occured to any of these rocket scientists to put the spiders in seperate cages.
...or better yet, genetically modify the spiders to be nice! Perfect plot for a B-grade movie with LL Cool J; the spiders are only PRETENDING to be nice! Mwuahahahaha...
Please help metamoderate.
I imagine a bizarre cult of disgruntled former Kevlar workers sacrificing one of the spider-silk goats.
What ever happened with the spider-silk goat and cow experiments anyway? Or is that how they got enough material for the current breakthrough?
Hey! HEY! Stop that! No goatse links!
./ is becoming a warez news site? I haven't played "Silk's Secret" yet, but its publisher is surely very unhappy with this and may sue the "Sc1ent1sts".
"It's obvious that they couldn't have discovered the secret to making silk that quickly without access to SCO's intellectual property," said Darl McBride, SCO's president. He continued, "In 1999, they were making some silk, but it was low quality. Then, suddenly, over the course of a year or so, their silk became enterprise quality. Stuff that took other people 30 years took them months."
In a move considered to be brilliant in the business world, SCO bought the patents on silk production from God in 2000 for an undisclosed sum. "We've been looking to leverage those patents ever since" said McBride.
Right now, SCO isn't planning on suing individual spiders, although they won't rule out the possibility. "We've considering going after some of the nuisance species, such as brown recluses and black widows, first," said Chris Sontag. "We've been warned by our attorneys that doing such would expose us to the possibilities of bites and nasty wounds, so it's really something we don't want to do right now."
Eric Raymond, president of the Open Silk Initiative, says that God lost protection on His silk production techniques by creating so many different species that use the intellectual property and not entering into any official licensing agreement with them. "It's a little late to be worrying about that now", said Raymond. A 1993 lawsuit regarding silk production methods also cast doubt on the validity of the patents.
Meanwhile, some spiders have openly questioned Raymonds repeated assertions that he represents them or their opinions in these matters.
Do you have ESP?
I want run-proof stockings and sexy lingerie out of this stuff.
Scientists develop $5 artificial diamonds and scientists develop economically produced artificial silk; I'd say its been a pretty good time for those who had kept their hopes up for alchemy...
Actually, it's a pretty good time to be a pimp. Now if only they could make $5 artificial fur that was as good as the real thing...
Lost in the mountains (Colorado). Wandering around on what turned out to be a ranch. Felt the ground shaking, saw a big cloud of dust coming toward me; as the cloud came closer, I saw that it was a herd of cattle kicking up the dust. Holy fucking shit, I thought, and fortunately found a rather large rock to climb up on. I don't know what had the cattle so spooked and/or pissed off, but they were moving damn fast; they detoured around the rock (it was a big rock) but I suspect that they would have run me over without a second thought crossing their tiny little brains. And there were a lot of them. I was up on that rock for, oh, a good fifteen minutes while they went past me, and I probably waited the same amount of time afterwards to make sure they weren't coming back. Eventually I got down off the rock and wandered along until I found the ranch house.
This was after I'd been lost for several hours, and had already dealt with all kinds of other scary situations, though probably none as immediately life-threatening as the cattle. It was one of those things that seems like a grand adventure when you're fifteen. Now, almost twenty years older and wiser, I look back on the whole experience and shudder.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I have this piece of wood in the back yard covered with spiders. Guess they should have called me...
This is my sig.
"We still can't store electricity efficiently"
But my cat seems to be distressingly good at it.
KFG
These poor defenseless spiders are being abused by the evil corporate silk manufactures, they are being held against their will to produce more of a substance than nature dictates they should...
Wait a second, I have arachnaphobia, STICK IT TO EM!
Learn something new.
Da Bears !
oh, wait...
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
And milk is only made by cows, not goats. Why do people keep getting these things mixed up?
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Scientific Survey", on the discovery of Silksteel Alloys
In one moment, Earth; in the next, Heaven.
-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit", on the construction of the Space Elevator
Unfortunately, Silksteel Alloys are not sufficient to construct the space elevator. That calls for Super-Tensile Solids, which is quite a lot more advanced...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
What, you mean you can't just type "strength of silkworm silk in pounds per square inch" into google calculator? Pah. I mean, it'll cope with nanoparsecs per fortnight... :)
- Oliver
The right to bear arms is only slightly less stupid than the right to arm bears...
guys,
i could not find this crack on astalavista.box.sk
Plz point me 2 where I can d/l this crack
Humans didn't arise from apes; both descended from common ancestors. Also, nobody's "arising" - evolution isn't a process toward mythical perfection. A modern-day shark is just as evolved as a modern-day human. Staying the same is evolution too, because selection pressure never stops.