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For Super-Tough Spider Silk, Just Add Titanium
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany has been experimenting with ways to infuse biopolymers with different kinds of metals. Finding some success with their tests on spider silk, the team was able to improve the tensile strength of the fibers, increasing the amount of energy required to break a strand as much as ten times. "Spider silk is not a practical engineering material, but materials scientists are trying to produce artificial fibers that mimic its properties. If they succeed, the result could be super-tough textiles. Knez thinks the technique has more immediate potential for toughening other biomaterials such as collagen. 'Mechanically improving collagen using our technique might open several new possible applications, like artificial tendons.'"
Just ask Peter Parker. He can get you a sample of Spideman's webbing, and problem solved.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
...does whatever a troller can. Spins a lie, any size, catches n00bs, just like flies, LOOK OUT! Here comes the troller man.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
wait. isn't anything with the word "instant" in have alot of calories and salt.
Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
How do I shot web?
Can someone tell me which insects contain the most titanium, and where can I get some to feed my pet spider? I've got him weaving me a hammock in my living room, but it isn't up to holding my weight yet. Maybe I'll try mixing titanium dioxide with that damn cornstarch in the kitchen that the moths got into.
For now, they're just coating existing webs with a thin film of titanium oxide. Soon, some bright scientist will have the wonderful idea of "hey, if we can just genetically modify the spiders to metabolize titanium and use it in building webs..."
Then the slashdot tags WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong and IForOneWelcomeOurNewInsectOverlords will be back in vogue.
[Yes, I know spiders are arachnids and not insects. Remember, I'm talking about a SLASHDOT tag, okay?]
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide. So the super-soldiers of the future will look like they've been doused in suntan lotion.
How about using a coltan alloy instead?
--John Henry
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide. So the super-soldiers of the future will look like they've been doused in suntan lotion.
It's the special forces Ultra Goths!
titanium enriched bugs and stuffs.
Because, the primary diet for silkworms are mulberry leaves.
Nexia Biotechnology used to breed genetically modified goats that produce Golden Orb spider silk proteins in their milk glands. They would milk the goats like normal, sift the proteins out, and then mechanically spin the threads. They wanted to use it for medical sutures, bullet-proof vests, and stuff like that. They eventually wanted to genetically modify plants they could just grind up to get the proteins out of their leaves.
Anyway, I lost $1000 investing in that company. Seems NANOTUBES could do everything the spider silk could do, only better, and possibly in even more applications.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
I, for one, welcome our eventual titanium web building, eight-legged overlords.
"Until quite recently, spider silk had the highest tensile strength of any substance known to man, and the name Silksteel pays homage to the arachnid for good reason." -- Commissioner Pravin Lal, U.N. Scientific Survey, on the discovery of Silksteel Alloys
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Fyi, there are many differently-colored copper compounds and even more iron compounds. Iron is especially versatile because of its different oxidation states.
So anyways, TiO2 is white, but it is not something your body could use- it is as inert as glass, basically. simply injecting it into the skin would do nothing except maybe cause some local psoriasis. Getting Ti into the organic side of things would usually require TiCl4, which is colorless, or an ester of Ti (also colorless). TiCl3 is dark red but again, not something your body would be able to do anything with. There simply aren't any biological processes in the body that use Ti.
The one interesting thing about TiO2 that I can come up with would be that if you covered someone with it and imaged them in UV light, they would be almost completely black, as TiO2 (like zinc oxide) converts UV to heat. And that's why it's used in sunblock.
If you want to take over the world I'd focus on lighter, more effective body armor and on capturing the hearts and minds of the young people. Your competition is FOX and Pinnacle Armor.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
or just add lithium and get over yourself.