51–60 of 74 posts
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The good news about silkworms is that they're not in it for the long haul anyway, so as long as there are no teratogenic effects, it's all ok.
... because they're boiled alive as soon as they finish their cocoons. But maybe you mean teratogenic effects on humans?
EDIT: oh... no thanks!
Silkworm son: "What's for breakfast?" Silkworm dad: "NANOTUBES."
For some reason, attempts at humour here on HN never leave readers indifferent. I should say thank you, I was very tempted by a 'reel of transistors' version.
I feel bad about the downvotes in individual cases, but the culture of easy, repetitive, or just plain bad jokes is a big part of what turned Slashdot from my favorite site into a cesspit that wasn't worth visiting, so I think they're a necessary mechanism.
The trick for this site is to make a good joke. If the topic is well-worn, it has to be a great joke. If you're not sure if it's a good joke, it probably isn't. I base this on the fact that most people simply aren't funny. There's no shame in that, it's just true.
I'm assuming the OP joke is a reference of some sort since I don't get it. A good rule of thumb is that references aren't jokes at all, they're references, so posting them here will probably get you a downvote. This is also true of puns and memes, both from broader culture and more traditional nerd quarters.
And just to be clear, I didn't downvote the OP, but I would have if it weren't already grey by the time I saw it.
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Silk reinforced with carbon nanotubes still isn't strong enough for a space elevator :'(
Not on Earth certainly. But I'm pretty sure you could build a space elevator down to the Moon with this stuff.
I sense a new explanation for Spiderman's webs on the next reboot. But seriously, are we anywhere close to using this stuff for human benefit? Or near learning how these worms do what they do? This sounds fabulously awesome.
A company called Bolt Threads raised a $50M round this year. It looks like they're going to miss their 2016 release of spider silk clothing, but it also seems like a release date and real product are right around the corner. https://boltthreads.com/2016/05/11/bolt-raises-50-million-an...
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While it's probably a negligible risk, we would breathe the dust from silk fibers if the stuff were produced in significant quantity.
We're already doing that; we produce nanoparticles of carbon from a number of industrial processes, most notably burning coal. IIRC there was an article on HN recently about finding some magnetic nanoparticles which had made their way into human brains.
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Indeed, I naively assumed that being a carbon based organism, more carbon couldn't do much harm.
Carbon based expression is misleading as usual. Organic based life (i.e. based on carbon structure chemistry) is more accurate.
It's like the "all natural" misnomer. Coral snake venom is all natural, but I don't want any, thank you.
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ya eating crickets is also supposed to be protein dense, its good thing tho, because red meats are devastating to the eco system. Id be down to try some cricket flower cookies :D
Completely off-topic, but it's funny you mention this. A few weeks ago, I was looking at one of the stores I buy various odds and ends from that I can't find locally (fairly mainstream food-related shop that's known for selling nuts and dried fruits) and ran into cricket flour [1]. I suppose I shouldn't be overly surprised, but it's certainly unexpected. The allergy warnings are particularly interesting (shellfish).…
Or perhaps, we start breeding silkworms for greater and greater tensile strength silk? Perhaps we could get some of nature's nano-machinery to align and interweave nanotubes in a durable matrix for us?
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We're already doing that; we produce nanoparticles of carbon from a number of industrial processes, most notably burning coal. IIRC there was an article on HN recently about finding some magnetic nanoparticles which had made their way into human brains.
Doesn't that make getting an MRI really really dangerous?