Genetic Engineering Fuses Spider Silk and Silica

PhysOrg.com ^ | June 27, 2006 | Tufts University

[strategofr]

"Fast-forward 20 years ... in a stunning discovery, the composite gene somehow made it into the wild and there is a new breed of bird-catcher spider, dubbed the plane catcher, who's web is strong enough ... you get the idea."

This is a good point. In addition, the Russians, Chinese, and their supporting cast are perfectly willing to take breakthroughs like this and utilize them for evil purposes---who knows what, but the possibilities seem endless.

Does that mean we would be better off terminating progress? In some areas, I suspect it does.

This sort of stuff reminds me of the Tower of Babel story in the Bible. Interpret it any way you want, from a religious perspective or a metaphorical one---when man challenges God, he gets in trouble. And this whole genetics thing seems like just such a challenge.

[be4everfree]

Diatomaceous earth is widely used in swimming pool filters.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Also bad news for pool owners for a while. The Mars Rover project manager claims they bought up all the diatomaceous earth in the LA area to make their synthetic Mars dirt. I'm not sure if he was joking or not.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"How did they know" -- that's a real interesting story. I had the pleasure of hearing the Mars Rover project manager talk about it earlier this year when he spoke at a security conference (of all places, huh?). Figuring out the mix wasn't easy to do. You can read more at the JPL Press Release.

[Junior]

Genetic Engineering Fuses Spider Silk and Silica

I could make a fortune selling tiny Tucks pads to the poor spiders!