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Spider silk is extremely vulnerable to flame though... I'm not sure if that is mostly related to just how thin it is... But I would like to see a comparison between this fabric and nylon when near open flame. Nylon will melt, what will this do?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of the outer shell of a Parka is to lightly and durably contain the insulating material and offer some wind resistance. I'm not sure on the weight of the resulting fabric, but if its in the realm of existing nylon shells and offers greater durability, its a massive win.
ah - so it's possible that the reasoning behind this is the low weight mixed with its huge strength/durability gains?
If its as heavy as Canvas, then its just novel.
I remember seeing a video as a kid of a spider silk blanket flattening a bullet shot at it. Is this parka as puncture resistant?
Wow, just recently I was looking up all about spider silk, thinking we weren't utilizing it to its full potential - whether medical, military or even fashion. Very excited about this, though it will probably be extremely expensive.
All new breakthroughs start expensive, though. Not until economies of scale come in does the price get driven down.
I'm curious to know what the tensile strength and Young's modulus is for the thread. I get annoyed that the "stronger than steel" moniker when it discusses one aspect of strength and generally related to weight but not volume. Its much less impressive to have a .050 fiber that is "stronger than steel" when the equivalent steel fiber would be .0005.
Interesting questions like "How does it compare to Kevlar(tm)?" are we going to see sails made out of it? What is the durability in the presence of ultraviolet light (aka sunlight)? Is this just a Velben[1] fiber, suitable only for showing off just how much you can spend on a jacket?
Another company, Bolt Threads [1] just raised significant money [2] to produce spider silk as well. Started by a few molecular biologists, they too took it from a protein sequence, into yeast, purified the protein in bulk, spun it into thread, then wove it into a fabric. Which means, theoretically they can tweak the protein sequence to produce an entirely new fabric in a matter of a few weeks. Once you get a woven pr…
Another company, Bolt Threads [1] just raised significant money [2] to produce spider silk as well. Started by a few molecular biologists, they too took it from a protein sequence, into yeast, purified the protein in bulk, spun it into thread, then wove it into a fabric. Which means, theoretically they can tweak the protein sequence to produce an entirely new fabric in a matter of a few weeks. Once you get a woven pr…
If the fabric is made of proteins, can you eat it?
The germane question here is "does this have nutritional value"?; the answer is almost certainly "no".
Another company, Bolt Threads [1] just raised significant money [2] to produce spider silk as well. Started by a few molecular biologists, they too took it from a protein sequence, into yeast, purified the protein in bulk, spun it into thread, then wove it into a fabric. Which means, theoretically they can tweak the protein sequence to produce an entirely new fabric in a matter of a few weeks. Once you get a woven pr…
If the fabric is made of proteins, can you eat it?