Slashdot Mirror
Insect Substance Synthesized For Science
An anonymous reader wrote to mention an article discussing the successful synthesis of resilin, a super-elastic material used by insects to perform amazing feats. From the article: "Dr. Elvin predicted the substance would lead to everything from artificial arteries to spinal parts that would not wear out despite being flexed 100 million times. 'That's how many times you move your back in 50 or 60 years,' he said. It could also be used in micro electronics. 'We even imagine putting it in running shoes.'"
I like where this is going...
This all sounds very good but how cost efficient will large, industry scale production of resin be? Just because they can successfully reproduce its chemical structure does not mean that they can do it in a cost efficient enough manner to break into any of the mentioned markets.
Lots of better (non-registration-required) links here:
+ News
http://news.google.com/news?q=resilin&btnG=Search
This sounds wayy too much like Son of Flubber!
"We currently make sufficient material for research purposes, but this could be scaled up for commercial use," Dr Elvin said. "It looks a bit spaghetti [but] we can cast it in any shape."
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
Learn less about Resilin at Wikipedia.
Resilin condoms. One size really does fit all.
this will only become affordable on an commercial scale once the porn industry starts using resilin - i won't go into details, but there are interesting applications for a high durabality super-elastic material... ..or maybe just new alien case-mods?
- Andreas
Now lets see another invention go overseas while our anti science government sits on its's hands ...
Anothr invntion go ovrsas? Invntions don't gt outsourcd...thy gt invntd. Nxt tim, try a littl hardr with the anti-govrnmnt rhtoric.
You know its getting late when you read the article as "Incest Substance Synthesized For Science" ..." An anonymous reader wrote to mention a article discussing the successful synthesis of resilin, a super-elastic material used incest to perform amazing feats" and I'm like WTF
Admit it, you guys are all thinking that too. Boo organic web spinnerets.
But will your body accept it?
It doesn't do any good if your body rejects your new arteries..
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
Spiders produce super-strong silk, other insects produce this perfect rubber substance. What is it about insects that they produce such desireable materials? Are there more insect substances equally amazing?
AccountKiller
... so to speak. No soul-eating registration required:
Harnessing flea power to create near-perfect rubber
Move along. No dealing here please .... many young children frequent this site.
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
It looks a bit spaghetti [but] we can cast it in any shape. Dr. Elvin, I presume? Or is it .... Peter Parker...
I, for one, welcome our super bouncy overlords.
threadeds blog
I just can't wait for those terrorists lugging slingshots powered by resilin bands ;-)
"Dr Elvin predicted..."
For a moment I read that as "Dr Evil"...
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
It's either very clever, or true.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
I spent a full two minutes researching that article, you insensitive clod!
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
Love to get some of that stuff into my knee joints. It'll be great to not have to worry about wearing them out. Too bad he said it'll take at least a decade to make human joint replacements. Hope other researchers jump in to speed it up.
note substance will not work under the red sun of krypton
While resilin sounds interesting, the article seems a bit hyped up...
"If humans had such pads they could leap 100-storey buildings"
That sounds like unsubstantiated exxageration- eg no reality behind it. Now it may be true, but seems highly improbable to me?
I hope resilin does neat things, but I'd rather read about it in Science magazine or Scientific American.
What exactly can this stuff make you do that 50 espresso shots can't?
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
When we finally have the ability to find out, we may end up losing the interesting species that we will not find out.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You can read more about it in BBC News (English) and in Astroseti (Spanish).
Faith does not move mountains, but drills can go through it.
but once we all wear our super strong resilin shoes and belts with Insect Power(TM), I just hope nobody then also invents a cheap, mass market universal teleporter.
"a gallon and a half (5 liters) of espresso" contains so much caffiene that it can kill you. source: wikipedia .
ah, mod points
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of this...yuck, imagine having to untangle it.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
If humans had such pads they could leap 100-storey buildings.
I dont beleive it for a second. Take scale into account! The force needed and the required energy could not be stored in a bit of rubber between you're legs.
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
If he starts saying 'Stay a while, Staaaaay forever!!' I'm out of here I always wondered what happened to that guy after I finished 'Impossible mission' on the C64'
I've got some photographs, I'd like to show them to you. Though you don't know the girls You'll recognise the view..
That hyperbole was invented by the reporter. The summary in Nature has no such claims.
I really hate it when scientific discoveries get FUBARed by the press. What is it with journalists? Why don't they have any common sense?
And you know it's getting REALLY late when you don't even go "WTF".
Sure, anything that can be done in the lab can be done on a larger scale. But they don't know whether or not this kind of thing would be economically feasible when done on a larger scale. That's why it's called research, because we don't already know. It might be feasible, but the truth is we won't really know until it's happened.
Furthermore, these kind of things usually don't pan out. Even it it does, it won't be practically available to the general public for decades because of the secondary technology that needs to be developed first to make it feasible. Scientists like to make grandiose claims about what their research will lead to because it helps bring in funding for continued research. That doesn't mean they will pan out, only that the scientist thinks they might.
...gee whiz, future technology always seems so promising. Too bad it never seems to change from being only promising.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
No, Elvin is right. So, stay a while...
Hey, now! You'd be amazed at the amount of force and energy that's stored in the rubber between my legs!
the damned things wouldn't stand still long enough to be milked!
...Scientists trying to score their next round of funding by claiming "breakthroughs".
I am sure the material is very good but I am cautious. Biomechanically, insects operate in a very different world to us and proteins (even structural ones) have a tendency to need care and feeding from surrounding tissues.
I wish at was Friday, but I dont want to wish my life away. So I wish it was last Friday.
Another use could be shock absorbers for vehicles.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?id=190resilin&type=m ediaRelease
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
"Return To Tommorrow"
Scotty commenting about an alien synthetic muscle compound in front of him:
"It's a fancy name, but how will something that looks like a drop of jelly
make this thing work?"
Henoch (The evil alien):
It will have twice the strength and agility of your body. It will last 1,000 years.
The ultimate superball! Throw it against a wall and watch it bounce all over for hours!
and after 300 cups do you break the coffee barrier?
...to repeat the title 10 times as fast as you can. Extra points if you have dentures.
Some settling may occur during posting.
"Dr Elvin predicted the substance would lead to everything from artificial arteries to spinal parts" While his research partner Dr. Evil predicted the substance would lead to everything from miniture clones to sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
"If humans had such pads they could leap 100-storey buildings."
Statements like this make me cringe.
That sounds like unsubstantiated exxageration- eg no reality behind it. Now it may be true, but seems highly improbable to me?
One does tend to suspect any popular press story that makes mistakes of scaling like unto the ones in 1950s science fiction movies that have giant ants running around. For a basic primer on the goofiness of this claim, Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics would be one source.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
It's an issue of scale and purity, I imagine. With synthesis possible we finally have the amount of unadulterated material that we need to carry on larger experiements.
Yeah, that whole microwave oven thing is vastly overrated. And the dweebs at college carrying around backpack computers, they're completely losing their nerdy minds over the idea that someday we'll all be using computers embedded in the simplest daily things.
Take a look around you at all the lasers you encounter. Played a CD lately?
Almost nothing's ever the panacea that real true believers think it might be, but if anything the pace of change is accelerating, "Connections"-style.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Although I'm a huge fan of the scientific achievements we've made over the centuries, as well as the ones we're sure to make in the future, I find it humbling that the 'new hotness' material is something that mother nature's had for plain old insects for millions of years. And this certainly isn't the first time that nature has shown to be superior to our synthetic devices. I guess millions of years of evolution can produce some amazing things.
After the water all runs out, those without flippers, or with minimal flippers suddenly start to outcompete those with the uberflippers.
Not to mention, your view of competition is a bit skewed. Natural selection favors survival of the adequate, not survival of the fittest. Only in extreme situations does being the best help individuals survive to a significantly greater extent than being adequate. Certainly, there are some situations in nature where resources are so scarce that only the `best' survive, but throughout most of the natural world, being adequate is good enough.
And not to mention that adequateness in natural selection is defined entirely by propagating one's genes. It doesn't matter if a swimmer has the best fins in the world if the guys in speedos mate more frequently and have enough progeny to ensure that some survive the attacks of their quicker swimming brethren.
I hope this stuff is ready soon I need a new Mattress and this one better last 1000 years.
of Mithril, yes from... JRR Tolkiens now (in)famous EPIC (Lord of the rings... for those who haven't had coffee this morning yet).
From the pedia... "...It is a precious silvery metal, stronger than steel but much lighter in weight..."
And brought to us by none other than Dr. Elvin.
What will the elves think of next!
or aka: Grandson of Flubber
Look at a grasshopper. Any grasshopper. Try to spot one of its tendons. Now, imagine how many of those you'd need to somehow glue together to make a pair of sweatshop tennis shoes.
That is why you can't just harvest the stuff.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
they could leap 100 story buildings.''
:)
Oh the amusing stupidity of some science journalists.
Have you tried milking a flea? It's not a pretty sight. Half the time you end up crushing it with the tweezers.
How long until some group of insects files suit against these scientists for using their IP without paying royalties?
Remember - the insects outnumber and outmass humans, and certain of their subspecies ahve already established themselves in the legal profession...
Riddle me this... why does invention need to come from the government? We live in a free society where you and others, including corporations, can engage in research and then development of the results. Me think you like to rail against the "gummint" any chance you get.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
That scene of Fry moving in quicktime was the bestest. I wish slashdot would allow image posting.
I don't think it's lack of common sense. It's lack of any sort of scientific education. Communications majors don't take physics, chemistry or biology. They're going to take the easiest course they can (since most 4 year universities require SOME sort of physical/lab science), and barely pay attention. After all, they aren't science majors, they're communication majors.
I'm sure there are exceptions, but humans (especially we Americans) like taking the path of least resistance to get what we want.
The issue is not that the Government should be doing the invention but that Australia has a history of breaking ground, passing off the "value add" to other countries and then buying back the value added product. In particular with respect to some pretty fundamental science. I am not sure I am in the same boat as the poster with respect to their feelings about that situation, but the point is certainly arguable that a little more government investment in those inventions would benefit the whole country greatly and continue to do so in the future. Such investments, according to the poster, are probably good investments from a socal perspective.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
Second, a resilin high-bounce ball...
Seriously, though - I wonder if this stuff, if made right (perhaps combined with other substances - isn't there a polymer which shrinks in response to electrical stimulus?), could create an advanced artificial "muscle"? Could such a device be more useful (perhaps more efficient) in robotic and other mechanical applications where currently hydraulic, pneumatic, or electro-mechanical systems are used?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
In the future, when making jokes that refer to old movie plots, please avoid using sequals that nobody cared to watch. The movie you are looking for is The Absent Minded Professor.
As a bit of fun though, in the trivia section down at the bottom of the IMDB entry is the "recipe" for this amazing substance. I guess these resilin scientists are getting a little extravagent with their protein synthesis and genetically modified bacteria.
I knew damn well about the first Flubber movie. What a dweeb.
``Fitness in the evolutionary sense of the term doesn't mean the strongest, the most powerfull, or the most impressive -- it means the most capable to pass on genetic material.''
The question posed was ``why do so many insects make such great substances?'' and the reply was that ``evolution makes great things.'' But the only thing that evolution selects for, long term, is gene propagation. Saying that evolution produces `the best' or `the fittest' implies a value judgment that is not there in nature. Hence, my recasting of the theory of evolution as survival of the adequate.
That's why they are journalists! :P
I can't wait for this stuff to get used in a keyboard that lasts for 100 million keystrokes At one keystroke per second, that means over 3 years of continuous use. I'm especially imagining this on those awful membrane keyboards that have been so (un)popular on cheap electronics. I think quality improvements there might be nice.
Come on now, I don't think that they would use surgery to remove these tendons. We're not living in prehistoric times anymore - we have machine harvesters, factories, refineries, whatnot. I was just wondering why some process wasn't invented where you could dump a bunch of grasshoppers in a vat, and out of the otherside of some set of devices comes this substance, perhaps through some chemical or steam or whatever form of separation. Jeez people
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Imagine a beowulf cluster of MY FISTS IN YOUR FACE. Imagine a beowulf cluster of SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Anothr invntion go ovrsas? Invntions don't gt outsourcd...thy gt invntd. Nxt tim, try a littl hardr with the anti-govrnmnt rhtoric.
Next time, try a little harder with your spllng.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of MY FISTS IN YOUR FACE.
I'm sorry, but that configuration is not supported.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
I think he must be running the Hokuto No Ken distro.
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
I have had this explained by a very good orthopedist who replaced my right knee in 1997 with one that certainly is not something my body manufactured (one that works extremely well, too).
Dr. Scott told me that the only way my body could reject the knee is for me to have a runaway infection in my body that so energizes my immune system that it thinks it needs to attack anything and everything foreign.
That is kind of rare, as we tend to put bandages over cuts and wash deep wounds and treat them promptly where I live. Were I involved in some kind of natural disaster and could not do so I might suffer more from the effects of gangrene first before I lost my knee.
To put it plainly, these types of substance, when inserted in the body, tend to not attract the body's defenses, save just after their insertion. Think of how many pins help mend broken bones and how many other prosthetic devices we use to make our lives better and ask yourself how many people suffer from rejection syndrome with these. I think you'd find the number is very low.
Knee replacement surgery is very painful and difficult for the body and patients tend to run a low-grade fever for a few days. That fever is an indication of the body's defenses trying to find foreign organic material (or dead tissue generated by the surgery itself). I don't have a fever now and everything's fine. That would be the most probable result of using this substance within the human body.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.