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  1. #1
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    Default New miracle fabric being engineered

    ...I saw a news clip about a gene splice which has ordinary silk worms modified with a black widow spider gene to make them create spider web instead of silk. (Really) Test spider web fabric is stronger and lighter than kevlar. Am I the last to hear about this? Is Just Bill already making hammocks from this stuff?
    Lazarus

  2. #2
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    I heard a rumor that Just Bill was experimenting with this fabric but he was caught up in the web.
    enemy of unnecessary but innovative trail invention gadgetry

  3. #3
    Registered User Just Bill's Avatar
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    My shipment from the Isle of Doctor Moreau has not yet arrived.

  4. #4
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    I saw piece of fabric made from spider webs at the NY Natural History museum. It took 70 people 4 years to collect the webs needed to weave this one garment. For years chemists have predicted that spider web-based fabrics would have superior properties and that genetic engineering would have the potential to mass produce them. Several years ago they were making transgenic goats that could produce fiber polymers in their milk.

    https://www.wired.com/2009/09/spider-silk/

    https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_rep...spidersilk.jsp

  5. #5

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    Spider silk has a very high tensile strength, but because of its high eleasticity it stretches a lot. I read one article about genetically produced spider silk where a researcher said he could produce a fabric capable of stopping a bullet, but not before it stretched and penetrated through the body.

  6. #6
    Registered User Just Bill's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Odd Man Out View Post
    I saw piece of fabric made from spider webs at the NY Natural History museum. It took 70 people 4 years to collect the webs needed to weave this one garment. For years chemists have predicted that spider web-based fabrics would have superior properties and that genetic engineering would have the potential to mass produce them. Several years ago they were making transgenic goats that could produce fiber polymers in their milk.

    https://www.wired.com/2009/09/spider-silk/

    https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_rep...spidersilk.jsp
    4' x 11' is a nice size for a minimal hammock.
    though guessing the weight would be higher than ideal. Sounds like 10 million or so would let us find out if someone wants to spring for it.

    LONG ago... Laz and I discussed a knotted/rope hammock made of dynaglide.
    I did the math and it comes out higher than 1.0 oz fabrics. Not to mention all the bangladeshi refugee children I'd have to press into service to make them.

    That said... I do have a prototype sketch for a possible option named for the very fella currently being discussed.
    Though I believe in that neck of the woods he's better known as Anansi

    Inktomi.pdf

    While the woven hammock wouldn't work... it's possible that one could combine that concept with the core structure of my bridge hammocks to perhaps produce an item that would work very well in suspending a pad.
    Unfortunately the whole thing would require splicing (rather than knots) to work properly... so other than a one off for fun or MYOG tutorial I'd don't see it ever going anywhere serious.

    You'd need to use trekking poles to make it work... but the splicing itself to make Inktomi should come in around 6 ounces or less once you give spider the structure to weave his webs to.


  7. #7
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    If memory serves me correctly, Kevlar was originally designed as a synthetic spider web. Like many things, it didn’t work exceptionally well as a fiber, but when mixed with other composites, well, you know the rest of the story.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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