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"Bulletproof Human Skin" Made From Spider Silk And Goat Milk Developed By Researchers

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‘Making science-fiction a reality’: Bulletproof human skin made from spider silk and goat milk developed by researchers

  • Researchers genetically engineered goats to produce milk packed with the same protein as silk spiders
  • The protein is then milked out and spun and weaved into a material ten times stronger than steel

By Daniel Bates

Last updated at 3:37 PM on 16th August 2011

 Dailymail

It might look like a poorly drawn picture of an alien, but this is actually one of the most advanced types of skin ever made – that can even stop bullets.

Researchers genetically engineered goats to produce milk which is packed with the same protein as silk spiders.

Once this is milked out it can be spun out and weaved into a material that is ten times stronger than steel.

The fabric can then be blended with human skin to make what the scientists hope will be tough enough to stop even a bullet.

Scroll down for video

 

Bulletproof: Researchers genetically engineered goats to produce milk packed with the same protein as silk spiders, which is then milked out and spun and weaved into a material that is ten times stronger than steel

Dutch researcher Jalila Essaidi said the ‘spidersilk’ project was called ’2.6g 329m/s’ after the weight and the velocity of a .22 calibre long rifle bullet.

Working with the Forensic Genomics Consortium in the Netherlands, she said the goal was to replace the keratin in our skin with the spider’s silk.

The first stage involves growing a layer of real skin around a sample of the bulletproof skin, which takes about five weeks.

A video posted by the researchers on YouTube shows a bullet then being fired into the mixture of the two.

Essaidi said that the project was making science fiction a reality, even if the tests results were not yet perfect.

She said that silk has a long history of using battle in combat and that Genghis Khan once issued all his horsemen with silk vests as an arrow hitting silk does not break, meaning you can tease it out.

‘Imagine a spidersilk vest, capable of catching bullets, the modern day equivalent of Genghis Khan’s arrows,’ she said.

‘Now, let’s take this one step further, why bother with a vest: imagine replacing keratin, the protein responsible for the toughness of the human skin, with this spidersilk protein.

‘This is possible by adding the silk producing genes of a spider to the gnome of a human: creating a bulletproof human.

‘Science-fiction? Maybe, but we can get a feeling of what this transhumanistic idea would be like by letting a bulletproof matrix of spidersilk merge with an in vitro human skin.’

Bullet proof vests have been around for decades but skin that can stop them has only been the preserve of science fiction.

The most famous example is Superman, or the Man of Steel – bullets simply ricochet off of him.

 

 

the name of this project, the performance standard for bulletproof vests.

2.6g 329m/s are the maximum weight and velocity of a .22 calibre Long Rifle bullet from which a Type 1 bulletproof vest should protect you.

Spidersilk thread is relatively much stronger than steel and can even be made by a living being. Woven it would be capable to resist the impact of a bullet, much like a bee on the spider’s web. If human skin would be able to produce this thread, would we be protected from bullets? Together with the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands I take the acid test: by implanting transgenic spider silk in the human skin and letting a bullet do its work.

By implementing this bulletproof matrix of spider silk produced by transgenic goats in human skin I want to explore the social, political, ethical and cultural issues surrounding safety in a world with access to new biotechnologies. Issues which arise on the basis of ancient human desire for invulnerability. It is legend that Achilles, the central character of Homer’s Iliad was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Will we in the near future due to biotechnology no longer need to descend from a godly bloodline in order to have traits like invulnerability?

With this work I want to show that safety in its broadest sense is a relative concept, and hence the term bulletproof. The work did stop some partially slowed bullets but not the one at full speed. But even with the skin pierced by the bullet the experiment is still a success. It leads to the conversation about how which form of safety would benefit society.

2.6g 329m/s is made possible through the Designers & Artist 4 Genomics Awards and partly through sponsorship from Fisher Scientific. The project suggests interesting materials research that goes beyond the expertise of the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands and which utilises expertise of the Utah State University, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands Forensic Institute and other Dutch institutions.

The exhibition called Designers & Artists 4 Genomics is from June 17, 2011 until January 8, 2012 at Naturalis, seen in the context of the LiveScience experiment.

Additional Information: 2.6g 329m/s is a really complex project, additional information about what triggered the idea and how the project came to be can be found below on the additional pages.

MORE HERE



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    Total 14 comments
    • Blackwinter

      And here I was worrying about how to plausibly allow a genetically-engineered ‘soldier’ species fully resistant to ammo up to very-high velocity 9mm ammo and knives without scales or looking inhuman.
      I had some ideas in this general direction, but then to find this article today…
      Dam funny!
      Useful, but funny!! (life’s like that, and reality is weirder than fiction)

    • Anonymous

      Really don’t hink it would be a comfortable or safe skin for a human.

    • Anonymous

      The Beast of Atlantis……

    • Bloodmoons2014 youtube it

      UCSD of San Diego was just given 964 million dollars for research this year alone. Last year they set a record of receiving 1 BILLION dollars! That was enough to many many good things for the sake of humanity, yet they put it towards communistic research. It’s about a enough to make one puke.

      This is partly where your hard earned dollars are going; to immigrants to come to your country and develop ways to destroy you.

      Check out my youtube news channel to read articles I’ve dug up on topics such as these.

      Youtube Bloodmoons2014

    • Blackwinter

      Bloodmoons2014, to back your point…
      Funny how Humanity worries about ET dropping in with bombs and such. The biggest threat to Human survival is Humanity itself.

    • Anonymous

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      In the past days, I really found it difficult to choose one or two in so many health products in the market. Fortunately, I found this web, it really works. I share it to you here: http://www.health-care-review.c om . Save much time!!!

    • Anonymous

      As Frankenstein once said ” Hay what can go wrong?”

    • Anonymous

      WHY would so much effort be put into researching and inventing such a thing???? WHAT do they plan to do with this knowledge??? Every time humans mess with natural law we bring about our own destruction. Monsanto is a another example of this. Makes me sick knowing we have people starving and dying from disease all over the world and they take money WE give them for these sorts of purposes! Talk about misappropriation of funds. WHO APPROVED funding for this?

    • Eagle 1

      What better way to introduce aliens? And we all know what the Bible calls aliens! Heaven help us…………

    • Eagle 1

      What better way to introduce aliens? And we all know what the Bible calls aliens! Heaven help us…………

    • Anonymous

      We’re building aliens!

    • PeaceCommons

      let’s not forget they are torturing animals in this sick process.

    • Lliam

      RIPOFF

    • HDThoreau

      Silk doesn’t heal when it’s damaged. Keratin based skin does. How would you like looking like the surface of the moon by the time you’re 30.

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