For Super-Tough Spider Silk, Just Add Titanium 53
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany has been experimenting with ways to infuse biopolymers with different kinds of metals. Finding some success with their tests on spider silk, the team was able to improve the tensile strength of the fibers, increasing the amount of energy required to break a strand as much as ten times. "Spider silk is not a practical engineering material, but materials scientists are trying to produce artificial fibers that mimic its properties. If they succeed, the result could be super-tough textiles. Knez thinks the technique has more immediate potential for toughening other biomaterials such as collagen. 'Mechanically improving collagen using our technique might open several new possible applications, like artificial tendons.'"
Spiderman (Score:2, Funny)
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Hey, Aquaman will be king when global warming finally finishes working! I, for one, welcome our water breathing overlord.
Troller Man, Troller Man (Score:5, Funny)
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Instant (insert wierd thing here), just add ? (Score:2, Informative)
wait. isn't anything with the word "instant" in have alot of calories and salt.
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Not necessarily: Dihydrogen Monoxide (the main ingredient of 'Instant water - just add water') can be unhealthy for you in entirely different ways.
(DHMO is also one of the main ingredients of beer, which might explain this post to me when I sober up)
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why not feed your chinese silk worms with (Score:2, Informative)
titanium enriched bugs and stuffs.
Re:why not feed your chinese silk worms with (Score:5, Funny)
Can someone tell me which insects contain the most titanium, and where can I get some to feed my pet spider? I've got him weaving me a hammock in my living room, but it isn't up to holding my weight yet. Maybe I'll try mixing titanium dioxide with that damn cornstarch in the kitchen that the moths got into.
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Since you're into experimenting with insects, I'll see if I can dig up a radioactive Spider to bite you.
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Well duh. Just put it in the microwave. Optionally add silver or golden stuff for the extra electro-power and some funny FX. ^^
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If you send me some yellowcake I can just put it in the cornstarch along with the titanium and wait to get bitten for my superpowers.
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Shhhhh. Are you sure you want to post this out in the open? With all the other items in hand, nobody else knows the secret to the Spiderman recipe is cornstarch! ;)
Re:why not feed your chinese silk worms with (Score:5, Informative)
titanium enriched bugs and stuffs.
Because, the primary diet for silkworms are mulberry leaves.
why not feed your chinese silk worms with (Score:2)
titanium enriched mulberry leaves and stuffs?
How? (Score:2, Funny)
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But you are asking about how to shot web, hmmmm.
From the old Spiderman Cartoon (Score:2)
The one with the vocal group theme song that goes, "Spiderman, Spiderman..." There was a scene where the Rhino charges, and Spiderman holds him back with a web across the street. He says something like, "It's a little special formula of mine...Concentrated Steel!"
But infusing collagen with titanium opens up the possibility of augmented super-soldiers like Nuke from Daredevil. "He's got a variety of plastics in his skin. Doesn't burn easy..." Collagen is a major component of skin. What color is titaniu
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It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide. So the super-soldiers of the future will look like they've been doused in suntan lotion.
Call Hot Topic! (Re:From the old Spiderman Cartoon (Score:5, Funny)
It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide. So the super-soldiers of the future will look like they've been doused in suntan lotion.
It's the special forces Ultra Goths!
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I would have gone with some sort of military Japanese porn joke.
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The Ministry of Agriculture is not responsible for Titanium Spider Silk. Or is it....?
Re:Call Hot Topic! (Re:From the old Spiderman Cart (Score:2)
It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide.
Star Wars makes so much more sense now.
Movies really lost something (Score:2)
The movies really lost something when they changed the web goop from something Parker creates into something he excretes. eww.
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Fyi, there are many differently-colored copper compounds and even more iron compounds. Iron is especially versatile because of its different oxidation states.
So anyways, TiO2 is white, but it is not something your body could use- it is as inert as glass, basically. simply injecting it into the skin would do nothing except maybe cause some local psoriasis. Getting Ti into the organic side of things would usually require TiCl4, which is colorless, or an ester of Ti (also colorless). TiCl3 is dark red but agai
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TiCl4 is colorless? Then the show would be more like Alias.
FOX news and Pinnacle Armor? I think of that crowd versus Cartoon Network and Cosplay outfits.
I for one... (Score:5, Funny)
For now, they're just coating existing webs with a thin film of titanium oxide. Soon, some bright scientist will have the wonderful idea of "hey, if we can just genetically modify the spiders to metabolize titanium and use it in building webs..."
Then the slashdot tags WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong and IForOneWelcomeOurNewInsectOverlords will be back in vogue.
[Yes, I know spiders are arachnids and not insects. Remember, I'm talking about a SLASHDOT tag, okay?]
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For now, they're just coating existing webs with a thin film of titanium oxide. Soon, some bright scientist will have the wonderful idea of "hey, if we can just genetically modify the spiders to metabolize titanium and use it in building webs..."
I wish I could find the article, but in that same vein, some scientists were looking at the structure of some microscopic organism's shell and thought "hey, if it can make this cool shell out of organic stuff, lets try feeding it [metal] and see what happens!" Much to their delight, the organism ate up the metal with no problem and used it to build a very complex and strong shell, which can now be used as a nanomaterial (IIRC).
I seriously doubt it'll be that easy with spiders, but the idea isn't that outlan
Forget titanium (Score:3, Interesting)
How about using a coltan [wikipedia.org] alloy instead?
--John Henry
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Why? Because Ti is far too cheap, easily obtained, and free from African bloodshed?
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And the "--John Henry" [wikipedia.org] line just went *whoosh* [wikipedia.org] over your head.
Nexia (Score:3, Insightful)
Nexia Biotechnology used to breed genetically modified goats that produce Golden Orb spider silk proteins in their milk glands. They would milk the goats like normal, sift the proteins out, and then mechanically spin the threads. They wanted to use it for medical sutures, bullet-proof vests, and stuff like that. They eventually wanted to genetically modify plants they could just grind up to get the proteins out of their leaves.
Anyway, I lost $1000 investing in that company. Seems NANOTUBES could do everything the spider silk could do, only better, and possibly in even more applications.
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Seems NANOTUBES could do everything the spider silk could do, only better, and possibly in even more applications.
Plus nanotubes aren't incredibly creepy.
Re:Nexia (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean creepier than adding bacteria and calf stomach-juices to goat milk, letting it stand in the heat until all the milk has transformed into some bacteria-digested firm mass, and then eatin that mass, including the bacteria??
Maybe you should try making your own food for a change. And without combining a bunch of industrial-strength chemicals. ^^
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Well, see the human body as a country. Of course there are foreigners in it. And some time in the past, everything was foreign. Some foreigners are bad. But most are good. Or they do the dirty jobs. Sounds like a pretty cool and well working system. Better than our countries for sure. :)
Although it would be strange, if our cops would just eat criminals, who themselves would breed like crazy. ^^
About the cooking/fermenting: As long as you do not kill every vitamin and protein in it, or refine stuff until it'
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You're talking to the wrong guy. I'm vegan. Seriously.
Oblig. (Score:4, Funny)
Even more obligatory: (Score:3, Informative)
Collagen Lips Now with Titanium (Score:2)
For kisses that last all night.
Also helpful for those folks that catch bullets in their mouth I suppose.
Sweet! (Score:1)
Hmm... this sounds familiar.. (Score:2)
Let me get this straight - they're infusing a super-strong metal into biological organisms. Why, oh why does this sound familiar???
Let's just hope they don't give the silkworms claws....
Never mind mithril armor (Score:2)
Imagine and even lighter weight shirt made of titanisilk. Frodo would be even safer from an orc blade.
well.... (Score:2, Funny)
Military Applications (Score:1)
Real life Man in the White Suit? (Score:1)
If only Alec Guinness could see this!