
Moon Parka: Outerwear Made from Synthetic Spider Silk - ph0rque
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/10/20/moon-parka-outerwear-made-from-synthetic-spider-silk/?mc_cid=564a205f0d&mc_eid=b793ea9915
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toufka
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 protein scaffold into a fabric, systematically
modifying the scaffold further is relatively easy for a protein compared with
the sugars and polymers we use currently.

It's hard to see unless you look closely, but this is the beginning of
biological nanotechnology. These are some of the very first deliberately
designed biological molecules to make it into a non-pharmaceutical market.
Technologically, the silks in these fabrics are made of designed components an
order of magnitude smaller than Intel's best transistors. And (under
biological conditions) are significantly more functionally versatile.

[1] [https://boltthreads.com/](https://boltthreads.com/) [2]
[http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/04/spiderpants/](http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/04/spiderpants/)

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simik
If the fabric is made of proteins, can you eat it?

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sithadmin
Whether or not it's constructed from protein is irrelevant to whether or not
it can be eaten. There are many proteins that can be eaten but are not (or
poorly) digestible or convey no meaningful nutritious benefit. And for that
matter, one can "eat" anything.

The germane question here is "does this have nutritional value"?; the answer
is almost certainly "no".

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dre85
I saw a talk a few years ago by a German company that was essentially trying
to do the same thing. I forgot the name of the company, but I remembered they
said that expressing the proteins is the easy part. Spinning the proteins into
a thread was the tough part. Apparently spiders have special excretion
structures/organs that can anneal the proteins to the right conformation
extremely quickly as they are ejected. This is why a spider can basically just
jump off of anything and shoot out his "bungee cord" while falling which is
incredibly fast if you think about it. When the researchers tried to replicate
this by simply shooting the concentrated protein solution through a tiny
capillary they weren't able to achieve the same molecular structure for their
thread nor at the same speed. They noted that their thread was strong, but
nevertheless significantly weaker than a spider's. I'm very interested to know
if these other companies managed to overcome these challenges and how exactly.

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ChuckMcM
Sigh, I wish web sites had more information, this from the manufacturer
[https://www.spiber.jp/en/endeavor?section=3](https://www.spiber.jp/en/endeavor?section=3)

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?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen)

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dimlyaware
Interesting, confused as to why weather wear is where it ended up? It doesn't
seem to talk much about insulation or any of the keep warm themes just general
strength.

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jdhawk
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.

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dimlyaware
ah - so it's possible that the reasoning behind this is the low weight mixed
with its huge strength/durability gains?

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jdhawk
In theory - although its just conjecture. There are so spec's out there on the
Jacket Weight or its windbreaking properties.

If its as heavy as Canvas, then its just novel.

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yathern
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.

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mooreds
All new breakthroughs start expensive, though. Not until economies of scale
come in does the price get driven down.

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djkrudy
Don't forget technological advancements, the other price driver. They're 11
years into the research, there could still be huge changes coming in how they
can produce it.

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HCIdivision17
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?

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fweespeech
Doubtful. It is likely the thinnest practical layer over insulating material.

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samstave
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?

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CarVac
Silkworm silk fabric burns, but only after more exposure to heat compared to
what it takes to melt nylon.

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mcphage
How much will it cost? I didn't see a price, but I know it will be high...

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hyperbovine
Enough to guarantee that it will be used almost exclusively to shield people
from the elements on the walk to and from the tech bus / subway into lower
Manhattan.

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anon4
Hey! Some of us do go on hikes now and then :) .

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lotyrin
Has anyone found any objective information about the actual properties of
Qmonos?

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aidenn0
I love it when promises of sci-fi from my youth become real.

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coldcode
I'm assuming it's not sticky, otherwise you'd be covered in flies as you
walked around.

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msandford
Spiders spin a number of different kinds of silk, one is sticky and another is
not.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web)

