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
-- beanangel, Jun 04 2008

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]

If it's possible, it's a great idea. Weave a bun from this and hope it works. _+_
-- xandram, Jun 04 2008


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.
-- nineteenthly, Jun 04 2008


yay thoughtful ideas
-- beanangel, Jun 06 2008


I can finally understand string theory.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 06 2008


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.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 06 2008


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.

However, I suspect that in most cases, the odor issue may be a serious concern.
-- ye_river_xiv, Jun 06 2008


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.
-- Bcrosby, Aug 22 2008



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