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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."
http://theinfosphere.org/Spiderians
Sure, bulletproof would be nice, but what I really want to know is whether it'll let me block creatures with flying.
Godley spent five years collecting and harnessing over 1 million spiders in special “silking” contraptions to extract their threads, 24 critters at a time.
On average, 23,000 spiders yield roughly 1 ounce of silk, making the process intensely laborious and time-consuming.
I am amazed and impressed, but a part of me goes "wtf was the point?"
Ah, well. That's one heck of an art project.
The V&A site is here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/ not much information but a nice picture.
TFA does describe some of the processing of the garment, so I'd assume that it would be wearable like normal silk.
It's apparently also supposed to be very light. Is it strong too? Or is the point just to have done it because it was there? If its properties end up being worse than silk-worm silk then there isn't really much point.
One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
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
All that work and _that's_ what they decide to make?
captcha: scarves
Kinda weird just before I read this I was just watching a show (Horizon - Playing God) where they were showing spider goats which are basicly geneticly engineered goats which make a lot of silk. I don't know if that's progress or just scary.
Aluminium was once phenomenally rare and expensive. Napoleon had a set of highly valued plates made of the stuff. Breakthroughs in manufacturing made it a cheap, common material. I suspect this will go the same way, with synthetic versions becoming a utilitarian material among others. The cape will become an amusing historical footnote.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
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.
?
Not many people know it, but the apex of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum. At the time, it was the largest piece ever crafted anywhere in the world and it was a precious metal. Only two years later, aluminum became completely worthless when the Hallâ"Héroult process for mass production of pure aluminum was discovered.
Spider silk isn't sticky by itself. It's essentially some very long protein filaments, same as worm-butt silk.
What makes spider orbs sticky is that the spider then deposits small droplets of glue along the threads.
But even spiders produce non-glued silk all the time. E.g., when a spider lowers itself by dangling on a silk filament, it doesn't bother putting glue on it.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
You're missing the word "commonly" that is in the summary.
No capes! -- Edna Mode
... But I think this spider research project was a much better use of time and money.
The article is wrong, the cape doesn't go on display until the 25th link. So don't pop over and try and see it until next Wednesday.
That's an understatement. I loaded the photo of that cape in Photoshop to check the value of that yellow and I got "#ZZZZ00".
But if the silk is made by a caterpillar, you're OK with it? Not creepy? (Try to imagine the crawling caterpillar producing the thread)
But unlike mulberry silk from silkworms, in which the hapless pupa is boiled alive in its cocoon, the spiders were released into the wild at the end of each day.
I... don't think it's doing as much crawling as you think.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Spiderman doesn't wear a CAPE!
Not true. Spiderman 2099 (canon) wears a web-capelet, and Spiderman Unlimited has a web cape. http://dma9fall07b.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/spiderman_unlimited.png
Very strong.
jump to 1:20 ish.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/nova_01-19.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z07dB3sKTs
Until you mentioned it, I didn't know it existed. I think I found the link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/cheryl_hayashi_the_magnificence_of_spider_silk.html
I know this is a nerds' platform, but did nobody notice that this is gorgeous? The detail, the color, the design. Unfortunately I showed it to my wife and now she wants one...
You'd be surprised, but there are some dwarves out there who have entire outfits made of spider silk.
But if the silk is made by a caterpillar, you're OK with it? Not creepy? (Try to imagine the crawling caterpillar producing the thread)
Well, yes, spiders are vile, creepy monstrosities self-evidently transported here from an alternative universe of horror by a malevolent race of fiends.
Whereas caterpillars are cute and turn into butterflies.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Your comment was annoying and juvenile. Best that nobody else has to see it.
I guess the same can be said about your identity.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.