Collaborate Disseminate
Mussels and silkworms may soon be indirectly responsible for saving people’s lives. Scientists have used proteins from both animals to develop an internal wound dressing that stops bleeding and prevents infections.Continue ReadingCategory: Medical, Sci… Continue reading Mussels and silkworms ally to thwart internal bleeding and infection
While spider silk proteins are something you can make in your garage, making useful drag line fibers has proved a daunting challenge. Now, a team of scientists from Japan and …read more Continue reading Synthetic Spider Silk
The complex molecular structure of spider silk has been successfully copied as scientists spin silk from an artificial gland that mimics nature’s process of producing one of the world’s toughest fibers. Scientists believe this breakthrough is a huge st… Continue reading Artificial spider gland spins scalable spider silk just like nature
Spider silk is widely known to be one of nature’s strongest and toughest materials. If everything works out as intended, an alfalfa-produced synthetic version of the stuff will be used in the construction of the Velozzi Hypercar … only 100 of which wil… Continue reading Velozzi Hypercar will have a body boosted by spider silk
For the first time, scientists have successfully produced full-length spider silk fibers using genetically modified silkworms. With high strength and toughness, this silk has the potential to provide a scalable, sustainable and better-quality alternati… Continue reading Bionic silkworms with spider genes spin fibers 6x tougher than Kevlar
Current methods for repairing injured nerves can be hit-and-miss and are restricted to repair over short distances. For the first time, researchers have combined two kinds of silk to create a promising biocompatible method of regenerating injured nerve… Continue reading Spider, silkworm silk combined to create new nerve-repairing material
Just like pharmaceuticals, banknotes and alcoholic beverages, the crop seeds sold to farmers are frequently counterfeits. MIT scientists have devised a method of spotting the fakes, by tagging genuine seeds with silk dots.Continue ReadingCategory: Good… Continue reading Silk-microparticle dots could help thwart seed counterfeiters
Nanofibers have recently been utilized in many applications, ranging from wound dressings to air filters to high-strength composite materials. Scientists have now developed a faster and simpler method of producing those fibers, which was inspired by th… Continue reading Silkworm inspires quicker, simpler method of nanofiber production
As one of the strongest materials known to science, spider silk regularly finds itself at the center of exciting engineering breakthroughs, and a new study involving a quick chemical bath could take this research into new terrain. Scientists have devel… Continue reading Chemically bathed silkworm silk is 70% stronger than spider silk
Microplastics are a growing environmental problem, but a new study could help cut out a decent chunk of them. The authors showed that silk could be a biodegradable replacement for microbeads and plastic particles that are often added to cosmetics, pain… Continue reading MIT’s silk capsules aim to take a bite out of microplastic pollution