Synthetic Spider Silk

Just recently, scientists have found a way to spin synthetic spider silk, like Batman does. These Swedish scientists are Anna Rising and Jan Johansson. The two biochemists came together to study the natural ability that spiders undergo. The spider silk protein is similar to a lengthy chain, containing three parts. The longest part of the protein has pieces that repeat themselves. Randy Lewis, a biochemist, explains the long part of the protein as “stacked Lego blocks connected by springs. The Lego-stack provides strength. The springy sections give the material elasticity, or stretch” (Kowalski, 2017). Rising and her colleagues had to make the synthetic silk-protein through material that would be similar to the starting protein, which is found at the start of the long protein. Rising got the spiders from South Africa. Rising and colleagues conducted research on the spider’s DNA and silk to find out what part of the DNA constructs the silk protein. They utilized the polymerase chain reaction in their experiment to duplicated the DNA segments of the spiders. Then, they put the DNA into small segments that would go inside bacteria easily. The bacteria took the small segments and added it to the DNA, with the ability to produce …show more content…
I was a bit confused as to what he meant by this, because I do not have any knowledge about medicine. However, when he explained what he meant by this, I understood better. I learned how the synthetic silk can be extremely practical and functional, because raising spiders to make natural silk would basically be impossible. Synthetic spider silk can be very useful and helpful, as it can “repair tendons, help damaged nerves repair themselves, and even form a framework for growing replacement tissues in a lab” (Kowalski, 2017). The synthetic silk can also be useful in the military as protective gear and can make parts for cars and airplanes. What can’t this silk do? Who would have