Genetically modified goats for bulletproofing: Spider Silk, proven to be 7-10 times as strong as steel if compared for the same weight, and can stretch up to 20 times its unaltered size without losing its strength properties. It also has very high resistance to extreme temperatures, not losing any of its properties within -20 to 330 degrees Celsius. BioSteel is a high-strength based fiber material made of the recombinant spider silk-like protein extracted from the milk of transgenic goats, scientists have developed a way to incorporate spiders silk-spinning genes into goats, allowing the researchers to harvest the silk protein from the goats’ milk for a variety of applications. For instance, due to its strength and elasticity, spider silk fiber could have several applications in bulletproof vests making it a much lighter body armor. Normally, getting enough spider silk for these applications requires large numbers of spiders. However, spiders tend to be territorial, so when the researchers tried to set up spider farms, the spiders killed each other. To solve this problem, Randy Lewis, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming, and other researchers decided to put the spiders’ dragline silk gene into goats in such a way that the goats would only make the protein in their milk. Like any other genetic factor, only a certain percentage of the goats end up with the gene. For instance, of seven goat kids born in February 2010, three have tested positive for having the silk protein gene. When these transgenic goats have kids and start lactating, the researchers will collect the milk and purify the spider silk protein into “much, much higher quantities,” Lewis said. In the future, the scientists plan to incorporate the silk genes into alfalfa plants, which they say could produce even larger quantities of silk. They explain that not only is alfalfa widely distributed, it also has a high (20-25%) protein content, making it an ideal crop to produce silk protein. I just hope people will use it for a much reasonable purposes, not for war, like using these technological breakthrough as a bulletproof vest, it makes no sense at all. Using technology for war is entirely wrong. We couldve used these advancements to a much much more such as improved car airbags, for making artificial ligaments and tendons, for eye sutures, for jaw repair etc.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:06:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015