They're farther along than I thought...

July 21, 2002 12:45 PM

They're farther along than I thought... You may have heard about Nexia Biotechnology, who have put spider genes into goats to get milk with spider silk protein in it. I thought it was still in the research phase, but Nexia have apparently gone to market with the stuff. They've signed agreements with several manufacturers to produce spider silk protein-based products such as lightweight ballistic armor (like Kevlar, only lighter and non-toxic to produce) for the armed forces and super-strong sutures and prosthetic ligaments for medical supply companies.
posted by RylandDotNet (7 comments total)

Okay, I wonder how long it will take PETA to jump on this one...
posted by Samizdata at 2:55 PM on July 21, 2002

[ joke about adding spider genes to PETA members ]
posted by frenetic at 3:56 PM on July 21, 2002

Most of the jokes have already been made here in the earlier discussion. Given that the NY Times article linked there was posted two weeks after the Washington Post article linked here, I'd have to say this probably a double-post.

Oh, and just to be a grammar nazi, it's further along than you thought.
posted by UnReality at 6:03 PM on July 21, 2002

I searched for "spider silk"... I guess that's what I get for not obsessively reading every single post every day.
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:15 PM on July 21, 2002

[fwiw you'd have turned up the link if you'd selected "in the past year" rather than the default "in the past month" in the search doodah]
posted by andrew cooke at 6:29 PM on July 21, 2002

i keep imagining goats hanging upsidedown in the corner of my house.
posted by o2b at 8:10 PM on July 21, 2002

Obsessively? Nah. Just a good memory. I don't even really care that this is a double-post. It's an interesting enough topic to merit further discussion. But there really isn't much, if any, new information linked by this post.
posted by UnReality at 6:03 AM on July 22, 2002