h a l f b a k e r yMake mine a double.
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thread from algae
grow an algae that can be treated then rotated to be thread; people could use the rapidly renewing thread to weave garments as well as tents | |
this is a response to the typhoon that made a few million homeless
I think that there is a filamentous algae that can be rotated n made to a thread that people could use to weave garments as well as tents
this may already be a plant of nature or could be a genetic engineering algal bacteria project,
kind of like the way nylon thread is formed from two surface reaction
algae have a variey of carbohydrate polymers; among plants humans use to weave these carbohydrate polymers are what are strong enough to be thread
sucrose is polymerizable with a bacterial enzyme I have read about
I think that a protocol like:
grow filamentous algae
grow bacteria that make sucrose polymerization enzyme
blend fluids
warm (which is like mercerize)
could strengthen the natural algae as the polysaccharides polymerized
wikipedia tech object: The exopolysaccharide alginate is a linear copolymer of ß-1,4-linked D-mannuronic acid and L-guluronic acid residues
Utility:
algae doubles each 24 h; thus an automated fabric maker makes mass fabric rapidly
if researchers did a good job algae could be better than fabrics now
making nylon from two fluids
http://www.kolias.com/science/nylon.htm
thought similarity to a bacteria that make a polymerization chemical right near an algae that makes a polysaccharide thread [beanangel, Jun 04 2008]
[link]
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If it's possible, it's a great idea. Weave a bun from this and hope it works. _+_ |
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It's doable, but alginates are converted to a gel by water. However, i have wondered if anything could be done with the cellulose in their cell walls. |
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I can finally understand string theory. |
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This is not such a stupid idea! When I was
a kid, I remember hoiking filamentous
algae (blanket weed) out of the pond and
letting it dry into a felt-like fabric. It was
totally useless as a material, but it's not a
far stretch to imagine a strain which could
be treated like cotton. |
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I too used to pull filamentous algae out of water as a kid. In running water, they would already be aligned, and there would be no need to card the materia. |
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However, I suspect that in most cases, the odor issue may be a serious concern. |
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Yeah- our pond have algae like that, stringy. Reminds me of sheared wool, and the whole pond grows over in a week- way more production than that many sheep standing together, forget the grassland or feed. |
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