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Spider Silk Cape Goes On Display

fangmcgee writes "Before anyone asks, no, it's not bulletproof. But that doesn't mean that the glistening yellow cape—the world's largest garment made entirely from spider silk—isn't a massive feat of engineering to be marveled. Now on public display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the textile gets its unearthly gleam from the undyed filaments of the golden orb spider, a species of arachnid commonly found in Madagascar."

7 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Futurama... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://theinfosphere.org/Spiderians

    1. Re:Obligatory Futurama... by Nursie · · Score: 4, Funny

      One art please! /zoidberg

  2. Bulletproof? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, bulletproof would be nice, but what I really want to know is whether it'll let me block creatures with flying.

  3. It is stronger than Mithril? by ciderbrew · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm sure it cost more than the whole shire to make. On the BBC, Horizon "Playing God". They show a lab that has altered the DNA of goats so they produce spider web protients in their milk which can be harvested.Makes production more feasible. [ As they have 8 legs you get more mutton too :)] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf

  4. Re:Washington Monument by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    when the Hallâ"Héroult process was discovered.

    Gezundheit.

  5. Re:Potentially fascinating only,.. by MrKaos · · Score: 3, Funny

    What are the capabilities of this silk? How is it superior to regular silk? I see no real facts just that it's made of spider silk and took a while? It would take me a while to fasion a life size bridge out of Lego - it doesn't mean it would be stronger than a real bridge.

    ?

    But consider that a spider's web isn't lego so the real question is whether a bridge made from spiders silk would be stronger than a bridge made from lego? And if you had lego made from spiders silk, fashioned into a lego mindstorm robotic spider, would it make even stronger spidersilk lego blocks?

    That why they have spiderman not legoman -- duuuuh. Lego doesn't have a spidey sense.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  6. A cape? by RoccamOccam · · Score: 4, Funny

    No capes! -- Edna Mode