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MIT Labs Moves Ahead In Synthesizing Spider Silk
icepick72 writes in with a link to an ExtremeTech article on new methods for creating synthetic spider silk. This material, like lycra in many ways, has a number of unique properties. The MIT lab that created it is being monitored by military elements, keenly interested in applications of this material to front-line technologies. From the article: "The secret of spider silk's combined strength and flexibility, according to scientists, has to do with the arrangement of the nano-crystalline reinforcement of the silk as it is being produced--in other words, the way these tiny crystals are oriented towards (and adhere to) the stretchy protein. Emulating this process in a synthetic polymer, the MIT team focused on reinforcing solutions of commercial rubbery substance known as polyurethane elastomer with nano-sized clay platelets instead of simply heating and mixing the molten plastics with reinforcing agents."
They can make spiderman outfits...that... look like hte movie...
If the author of TFA needs to dumb it down for him/herself, fine. But I wish they wouldn't assume that we all have a G.W.Bush I.Q.
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Perhaps they should try creating large metal spider butts in order to replicate the spider-silk process?
Seriously though, I want to know why it's so difficult for us to make it, but a spider just kind of shits it out. How'd this happen?
They are reinventing the prior art of his.
With great power comes great responsibility. Remember that, MIT. Remember that.
Reproducing the elasticity and strength attributes would be great. It would be even cooler if the synthetic materials developed were also biodegradable.
"it is being monitored by military elements, keenly interested in applications of this material to front-line technologies"
I smell another 'non-lethal' crowd control option brewing.
"Keep them people down with webs, Private!"
Ok, I get that...
"...has a number of unique properties."
Wait. So, is it like lycra, or mostly unique?
To prevent this day from getting worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD TH
If I hear anything about flying mini-gliders, I'm going to seriously freak...
I was watching a show about 10 years into early research into this.
The biggest interest was extremley light weight bullet proof clothing.
The military would be very interested if they can get their infantry to loose several kilo's of body armour.
Between this and the http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/0 8/2215253&tid=99GM goats we should have Alec Guinness' white suit in no time.
Is that supposed to be some kind of proof? I see no connection between Bush being a flaming moron and majority of flaming morons voting him.
Your whole country is composed of half-wits.
Bot Assisted Blogging
"Your whole country is composed of half-wits."
I was enjoying your comments until I got to that bit.
I don't think we should bother upgrading our troops until we've at least researched Photon Wall.
You missed the point, champ. If he were such an idiot, how'd he beat his "obviously smarter" opponent, who could have just acted similarly to win over the "whole country" of half-wits?
To put it in terms you might be able to grasp, this is a proof by contraction.
So what?
Many US-presidents are infamously dumb.
So what does that prove again?
I, for one, welcome our new SpiderGeek overlords!
I love the fact that no one understands the summary so everyone just tags the article as 'science'.
Until quite recently, spider silk had been the highest tensile strength of any substance known to man, and the name Silksteel pays homage to the arachnid for good reason.
I believe that the term is "he fell ass-backwards into the Presidency".
Name.
All it takes to sway a moron without an opinion is the name.
Bot Assisted Blogging
So in your world there is a correlation between political achievement and intelligence?
My god, which world is this you are from? If this is true it must be a paradise on Earth! If we could but all live there.
This would make a marvelous material for suspension bridges. It could drastically reduce the weight, which means that the foundations don't need to be as massive (read: expensive).
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Well, thanks. I've seen my daily affirmation of the consequent. Now I can see about making breakfast.
This work at MIT is not really an attempt to make synthetic spider silk but just something with similar properties.
Spider silk is a kind made of protein and the feedstock is a liquid crystal
A company called Spinox Ltd (an Oxford University Spin off -- get it? ha ha ). Here is a note from a Smith Insitute workshop on the topic.
This group is actually trying to emulate what goes on in a spider (biomimetics). The big advantage is that it uses harmless ingredients and low temperatures. Compare for example Kevlar, the manufacture of which needs concentrated sulfuric acid. Spinox details
That's a rather unfair generalization. I'd say we average about .6wit. There are maybe 10% with their wits about them, 10% totally witless, about 55% are half-wits, and 25% are .8wits. Unfortunately the witless and the halfwits come out in droves, and most vote strait-ticket for whomever opposes gay people and reason.
What a stupid generalisation. What about all the quarter-wits?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Wow, looks like the U.S. Military will be faced with two options for next generation armour -- this and Troy Hurtubise's Anti-Grizzly Suit. I wonder who would win in a fight to the death?
games journalism blog
Now see here! I am not a mere half-wit. I am a FULL half-wit. That makes a lot of difference.
Burp. Waiter! Bring me some of them flaming snails and a Coke! (Man, these Frenchies over here in Paree is a bunch o dummies. They don't even have KFC.)
Increase your odds for the suit -- its inventor upgraded it recently.
Seriously, DARPA has been working with MIT through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies to develop advanced armor, apparently including powered armor.
Revive the Constitution.
I'm not sure that's such an advantage. There's concentrated sulfuric acid in car batteries, people have been driving cars for a hundred years, how many people have suffered accidents from battery acid in that time? I mean, compared to overall accidents involving cars?
Industrial processes often involve nasty chemicals, at dangerous temperatures and pressures. That's no big deal, one can easily take all the necessary precautions. The problem is when the industrial process consumes a large amount of a limited resource, or when it generates a large amount of waste.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
Of course there is a correlation between political achievement and intelligence, even on this planet. I think if that if you calculate the coefficient, it will show a strong correlation, something around -0.92 or so.
My god, which world is this you are from? If this is true it must be a paradise on Earth! If we could but all live there.
If we all lived there, it wouldn't be like that any more.
my hunter just got a pattern for an armor that requires spider silk. I wonder if I could use the spider silk, and if so, how long it'll take for the synthetic stuff to make it to Warcraft?
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
Thank you :) :)
You'r answer to my ill tempered trolling was most excellent
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In addition to licensing the formula to chemical companies and manufacturers, the would make a hell of alot more by licensing to toy companie. THAT would be a huge sale during the next Spider Man release or Christmas season. The problems that happened during the Tickle Me Elmo ordeal would pale in comparison.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
and we're trying to become more like spiders because.....? lol and what are they using it for anyway? is it a new technology for soldiers to live in web tents out in the desert or something? Here we go again, looking for new ways to impress ourselves with "technology". Silly people :)
Did it occur to noone that this research is actually part of a bigger picture? The plan is to make synthetic web so we can make spiders as lazy as we are!!! We'll provide the web, and give the spider some personal time to figure out what they want to do with their life.
Oh boy, I better get cracking on my Spiderman suit....
There was this thing some chap invented quite some time ago, I think his name must have been Bell, called the 'Bell Curve', representing the statistical patterns that appear in nearly any collection of data one cares to poke a stick at.
Being that 98% of the majority (51% as it is considered in politics generally) are halfwits, it is no wonder we are in the mess we are in. This segment of the population is the most pliable to political trickery and least likely to notice they are being lied to.
The Republic is a tyranny of the majority of idiots who have no business determining the process of social change, and the God-King Emperor/President is just the face selected from the two options which is the least ugly. Democracy is a way to make everyone think that they are participating when in actual fact the outcomes are determined by those with the most money to brainwash the most people, and up the chain to the ones lending out imaginary money who decide who gets to play with the next wave of funny money and thereby giving them control over politics by selecting which groups they are the most generous with.
I don't know if there is anything that can be done to change the shape of it. For example, if we selectively culled those below 100 IQ (assuming one can settle on a test which gives a useful answer) then the whole curve just shifts into the right hand side from before and assumes the same structure. Is intelligence at issue, or is it emotional lability? I have met plenty of clever people who are brainwashed or believe the most inordinate nonsense. Lao Tzu would say that increasing the cleverness of the people would just lead to more sophisticated forms of trickery and crime. Making people dumber will not help either.
I gave up some years ago when I realised that the only thing one can do is find a way to advance towards one's goals, and use other people to define the faults we wish to eradicate in ourselves.
Anyway, back to the topic - synthetic spider silk sure would improve safety for mountain climbers, especially if combined with that gecko sticky stuff one of the first comments referenced, and probably would be very useful for special ops sneaking into enemy installations and planting charges. The idea of a device one can fire a very long and thin but extremely strong rope that ends in a sticky surface that will literally stick to anything strongly enough to hold the weight of a fully laden soldier is a very interesting piece of technology.
Imagine the wonderful pranks such technology would enable. Now that is what I am most interested in.
Now you know how us liberals feel. You guys STILL haven't stopped with the damn Clinton jokes. Tell you what, you guys stop making dumb Clinton jokes, we'll stop making stupdid Bush jokes. Deal?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
We'll know MIT has done it if Cal Tech is suddenly covered in cobwebs one night.
I prefer to know things like that in test weight...
20,000,000 pound Test...
That salmon ain't 'gettin away now!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.