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It's strong, stretchy, and compatible with the human body
Silk has been valued for millennia, but in recent years, scientists have paid attention to the material because it's extraordinarily strong, making it useful for bulletproof vests and body armor. The potential of silk is more than just protecting the outside of our anatomy, however, and researchers are now engineering silk so it can one day heal our wounds, hold up our bones, and become part of our bodies.
[...] One possibility is that silk can heal our wounds faster. In a study published recently in the journal Advanced Science, scientists engineered silkworms to spin a light-activated material that disinfects. First, the researchers identified all the natural proteins that could be activated by a specific type of light to create a chemical reaction that kills pathogens, according to Young Kim, a materials scientist at Purdue University and co-author of the paper.
Then, the scientists genetically engineered silkworms by inserting this protein, called mKate 2, into their DNA. These silkworms then produced a red, glowing silk activated by visible green light, like a regular LED light. When the scientists put some E. coli bacteria on the red silk and shined a green light on it for an hour, the survival rate of the bacteria fell by 45 percent. This process is very similar to using hydrogen peroxide to disinfect a cut, says Kim. The fluorescent silk and the light together generate chemicals similar to hydrogen peroxide.
The silk doesn't distinguish harmful pathogens (like E. coli) from benign ones, but, as Kim points out, neither does hydrogen peroxide. And we don't yet know the minimum time the light needs to shine on the silk to be effective. But the discovery is an exciting one, and the material could be used in devices that purify air and water and many areas of health. In another recent paper, Kim and his team figured out the exact physical properties that make silk so cooling, which is useful for treating inflammation. This finding could help us make silk even cooler, or engineer other fabrics to be more cooling as well. Between the self-cooling effects of silk and these bacteria-killing properties, it could be an ideal material for advanced bandages.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/4/17318362/silk-health-medicine-wounds-genetic-engineering-strength
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @08:30AM (4 children)
...the graphene and carbon nanotubes [soylentnews.org]. Interesting times for silkworms.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday May 06 2018, @05:15PM (1 child)
The problem with graphene, etc., is that it's too stiff. Silk is reportedly much more biocompatible. Of course, for some purposes stiffness is desirable. Even there, however, graphene is likely to be too stiff. You could, of course, adjust that by engineering periodic defects, but then making it is more complex and expensive.
Well, that's one of the problems. Another problem is that it's even more experimental than silk. Silk threads have already been used. And I believe that silk dressings are pre-historic. (Though in China pre-historic has been artificially limited because one emperor decided to burn all books about prior times...except a particular few.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @12:58AM
> ... Even there, however, graphene is likely to be too stiff.
That's not what she said.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 07 2018, @08:37AM (1 child)
People don't touch cyber links from Anonymous. Because you never know what they go to!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @06:08PM
A lesson was learned from the whole getting in touch with Russians fiasco, it sounds like.