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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
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.
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.
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...
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.
"a gallon and a half (5 liters) of espresso" contains so much caffiene that it can kill you. source: wikipedia .
ah, mod points
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.
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".
Hey, now! You'd be amazed at the amount of force and energy that's stored in the rubber between my legs!
and after 300 cups do you break the coffee barrier?
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.
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.
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!
Have you tried milking a flea? It's not a pretty sight. Half the time you end up crushing it with the tweezers.
Actually according to evolution it is their own stupid fault. If they couldn't adapt then they were not adequate to survive. That's just how evolution works.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
proteins and amino acid production via fermentation has proved to be a viable commercial approach in the past. This isn't as far fetched as say creating a space elevator with buckytubes.
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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."
If you where 100th your height you would be ~1/100^2 as strong but ~ 1/100^3 as light thus if you could jump 1 foot in the air now you could still jump ~1 foot into the air even though you where only ~2cm tall. (Ignoring things like wind resistance ect.) It's funny but if the "Honey I shrunk the kids" thing really happened they would have been a lot stronger than any of the insects they came into contact with. When you start scaling the human body down you find that it's incredibly strong for it's size (~2m tall) which is why insects don't get more than about 1 foot in size.
PS: However the basic strictures of the human body don't scale down to that size, in the real world, which is why mammals tend to be at least 2inches long when full grown.