h a l f b a k e r yNot so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.
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Granted i'm not an expert in this particular field, but surley its possible to farm spiders and create a fibre strong enough and elastic enough to use in all manor of useful causes. From bungee ropes to suspension bridges, maybe even whole earthquake proof structures utiliising our 8 legged friends.
Future Spin
http://www.boston.c...3/0608/currents.htm
[Shz, Oct 04 2004]
BioSteelGoats
http://www.abc.net....stories/s461157.htm
....named Peter & Webster apparently.. [gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Feb 07 2008]
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Not possible to farm spiders (someone on TV just said put a million silk worms in a room, you'll still have a million silk worms; put a million spiders in a room, you'll end up with one). But synthetic spider silk is Widely Baked, and people have been playing with putting spider genes in goats, which are more amenable to herding. |
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[DrCurry], could you provide us with a link please? The GE
doesn't surprise me but the curiosity of whether scientists
intend to have spider silk grown as the wool or to be spun
while milking a teet has overwhelmed my imagination... |
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I thought riflescope crosshairs were made from spider silk. Maybe that's just a fable. |
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I believe the story goes...
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-Spider silk harvesting was attempted but the spiders killed each other when in close proximity.
-Silkworm silk could be harvested, but the process was extremely slow.
-Some genius brings the Gypsy Moth Caterpillar to the US and attempts to cross-breed them with the Silkworm to accelerate production.
-He fails. And the Caterpillars escape to become a treacherous invasive species.
-Now we have “silky milk” produced by GM goats (with spider genes). |
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Found part of the story. <link> Warning: Don’t google on ‘silky milk’ (even though I’ve heard it called that). Still searching for the history. |
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On second thought, I’m done searching. - You can’t farm spiders. |
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Here's a story of a lowly spider,
Who was bringing up three very lowly -
Oops, sorry, wrong thread |
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...Who was bringing up three lovely arach' nids,
All of them could spin their silk like no other,
The youngest one could perl... |
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Why do all the spiders have to be in the same room? We give each spider their own pad, let them do their business, then every other day whip them out, harvest the web and stick 'em back in. |
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Here's the story
Of a goat named Billy
Who was busy raising three little gruffs, his own
There were sixteen cloven hooves all together
Yet they felt all alone
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Till the one day when the spiders gave their jeans up
Then our Billies started throwing up their lunch
Now we've got goatees giving milkshakes
Smooth and silky but you get a nutty punch |
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It's the GM bunch,
The GM bunch... |
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I do wish people wouldn't put nice little rhymes on ideas which should be [marked-for-deletion] as baked. |
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["baked" is not grounds for deletion. Please don't mark things unless you've read and understood the help file. Thanks!] |
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Why oh why oh why oh why.....do people
keep insisting that spider silk has some
miraculous property? It's merely an
inferior and less convenient alternative to
many modern synthetic fibres. |
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