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Bonnie
At the risk of repetition for some people (but it's worth repeating...) --
here is a cut and paste of a message I sent to the braidsandbands list a few
weeks ago:
> I was dumbstruck to read this in the paper a few days ago (NOT April
> 1st):
>
> "GOATS WITH SPIDER SILK IN THEIR MILK.
> (by Anjana Ahuja
> The (UK) Times, Science Briefing
> 9 April 2001)
>
> "Who has not been intrigued by the silken might of the spider's web? The
> material is stronger than steel yet lighter than nylon and, it seems, has
an
> ancient pedigree. Researchers at the University of California report in
> Science that the class of spiders known as orb weavers all produce very
> similar silks. This implies that the recipe dates back to the earliest
> spinners, which wove their webs 125 million years ago.
>
> "However, there are more primitive spiders that date back 400 million
years
> and their silks are utterly different - which suggests that a vast variety
> of silks lies undiscovered among the 35,000 spider species.
>
> "How spiders weave their webs remains an enigma. The silk is produced in
> glands in the spider's abdomen. Silk proteins are long, tangled molecules,
> and specialised spinning glands called spinnerets draw them out into the
> elegant, finished product. The precise manner in which the proteins are
> aligned and spun into threads has never been explained. But that has not
> stopped scientists wanting to produce the fibres for other uses.
>
> "Last year Nexia Technologies, a Canadian biotech company, announced that
it
> had inserted a crucial silk-producing spider gene into the genome of a
> Nigerian goat. The animal was kept under lock and key until he could sire
a
> generation of nanny goats that could produce the spider silk in their
milk.
> The silk proteins are extracted from the milk and then spun into fibres.
The
> material, called Biosteel, has some antibacterial and antifungicidal
> properties, making it ideal for medical sutures. It can also be used in
more
> high - tech applications, such as making bullet - proof vests. This was
the
> first time that the material had been made without the help of spiders.
But
> there are no plans to marshal thousands of spiders in the cause.
>
> " "We cannot farm spiders as we do silk - worms," says Dr Jeffrey Turner,
of
> Nexia. "These are territorial carnivores. Put 10,000 in a room and you end
> up with a single fat spider. So we have had to turn to biotechnology". The
> rationale behind using goats was that animals produce milk in a manner
> similar to the way spiders produce silk. During the lactation period of
> about 300 days, a goat can produce a litre of milk a day".
> .............................................................
Ann
Send private reply to "Ann Norman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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