9 ms·

In the Future, We’ll All Wear Spider Silk

127 points by anthotny 10y ago

toufka 10y ago
Not only is the material made from water, sugar and heat instead of oil (compared to synthetic fabrics), but it also comes from a known genetically encoded template. That genetic template can be varied by an atom here or an atom here with the the flip of a genetic bit. It can even encode additional biological functionality into the fabric itself. Recombinant silk is a pretty cool platform upon which an entire industry can rationally and rapidly tune the properties of new fabrics. Play with the protein, ADF3, orb-weaver dragline silk https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/adf3/ https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/adf3/ from Dan's original paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/msb.2009.62/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/msb.2009.62/full
- Razengan 10y ago
  I love reading about news of technology like this. Makes me feel like we're getting a step, even if an infinitesimal one, closer to the world of Numenera, where science is, effectively, magic. https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com
buzzybee 10y ago
Can it be made resistant to pest bugs like the clothesmoth or carpet beetle? That would be nice(and in some respects, already possible if you use only synthetic fabrics).
davidgerard 10y ago
Any other Worm readers here? #skitterasaservice
- cm2012 10y ago
  We'll need Darwin Bark spiders for the good stuff.
  - protomyth 10y ago
    The Cracked article on them is fairly informative, funny, and terrifying. http://www.cracked.com/article_19719_6-terrifying-new-creatures-science-just-discovered.html http://www.cracked.com/article_19719_6-terrifying-new-creatu...
- noonespecial 10y ago
  Bump for Worm. Thats a series that really groked the superhero genre. Made me feel 13 again in the best possible way.
- xuva 10y ago
  Some evangelism in case someone else happens to have a thing for ridiculously long, ridiculously well-written works of fiction: https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
  - andrewflnr 10y ago
    I forget how Eliezer Yudkowsky phrased it, but it's appropriate at this point to give a warning like "do not start reading this unless you have a couple weeks in which to not stop." It's the most intense thing I've ever read, and the stakes just get higher and higher and...
nathankot 10y ago
One of my friends works at a Japanese company called spiber, I think they made a jacket out of spider silk: https://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-spun-from-faux-spider-silk/ https://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-...
- Mindless2112 10y ago
  > North Face Will Start Selling Parkas Made from Fake Spider Silk for $1,000 [1] ...a bit pricey at this point. Maybe spider-silk-enhanced fabrics would be more reasonable. [1] http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/north-face-fake-spider-silk/ http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/north-face-fake-spider-silk/
agentgt 10y ago
I'm sort of pessimistic. I don't think we will ever have a perfect single textile material. A mixture of materials is more likely. Just because something is light and super strong does not make it comfortable. Otherwise we would all be wearing nylon all the time (or some derivation... nylon is super strong and of course there is Kevlar as well). The problem is nylon is pretty damn uncomfortable. I remember seeing something on PBS where they showed spider silk and I admit it seemed compelling and I can easily see it probably mixed in with other textile yarns. Of course why stop at spiders and not modify geese, goats, and sheep for their incredible and generally efficient fabric production. Synthetics still have a hard time beating goose down for warmth. Is spider silk going to be better for high loft? I doubt it.
- Razengan 10y ago
  Other than optimal temperature, what does the human skin need to feel "comfort?" Would the below work? [ Body | A layer of comfortable fabric that is only a few atoms thick | Pockets of air | A layer of light+strong magic material like spider silk ] and nanobots embedded throughout the clothing that sense your skin's temperature and heat/vent the air pockets accordingly.
  - agentgt 10y ago
    > Other than optimal temperature, what does the human skin need to feel "comfort?" Water... Humidity control and water transport is a huge aspect. This is why wicking is a big deal for base layers. And there is different types of wicking as well: moving to the next layer or just absorbing the water. There are pros and cons to both methods. The synthetics usually transport moisture... but this really sucks if your outer layer is waterproof which is often the case. This is one of the many reason why wool is often used as a base layer. Wool has great humidity control via absorption with out loss of temperature. Some fabrics via absorption become like heat sink conductors (cotton) and others like neoprene (wool). Otherwise you get chaffing, extreme heat loss, fabric freezing to skin, difficult to dry among other things... there is hackneyed expression that hikers have: cotton kills. However wool can only absorb so much water. One of the fundamental problems is that it is really hard to create breathable fabric and waterproof fabric (despite gore-tex marketing claims). But yeah if you had nanotech adjusting to heat/cold and water... sure it would be possible.
aetherson 10y ago
The last time I commented on an article about Bolt Threads, it was June 4, 2015, and the articles said that Bolt expected its products to be available in 2016. I was skeptical. Article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/a-bay-area-startup-spins-lab-grown-silk https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/a-bay-are... HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9659712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9659712 I guess that technically they're just a little late, but honestly an ultra-limited run of ties without any impressive spidersilk properties makes me think that not a lot has changed in the last almost-two-years. We'll see if Bolt can actually make a real serious product. As the article points out, there have been a lot of swings at this particular pitch.
- dmix 10y ago
  They still seem to have capital to operate and seem to be following through with a sale: https://ties.boltthreads.com/ https://ties.boltthreads.com/ "5-years in the making" is a long time. But I'm not sure the entire process was a failure. They probably have some excellent domain knowledge of value to many bigger firms as a fallback.
protomyth 10y ago
I take it the writer of the headline has not met the Cotton Lobby in the US. We should all be wearing hemp, but they are quite good at their job. North Dakota grew hemp during WWII, but getting it legal again is a pain in the rear. I'm sure spider silk will have a bit of problems too.
- forkandwait 10y ago
  Is there a suitably geeky, well written (worthy of HN) article on hemp as a fabric? A down to earth hemp clothing website would be cool; like if Costco sold hemp clothes...
  - quakeguy 10y ago
    1. http://www.life.ca/naturallife/0906/hemp_fiber_makes_a_comeback.htm http://www.life.ca/naturallife/0906/hemp_fiber_makes_a_comeb... 2. http://www.hemptraders.com/Hemp-Textiles-s/1817.htm http://www.hemptraders.com/Hemp-Textiles-s/1817.htm
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- guelo 10y ago
  I don't know if it is necessarily true but the hemp fabrics I've felt have been stiff and scratchy.
  - Neliquat 10y ago
    Thats just the unprocessed hippie shit. Thank you stereotypes.
- jakobegger 10y ago
  I had a hemp shirt. I really loved it, but it was pretty rough. I think you'd have a hard time selling hemp clothes to people who are accustomed to the soft texture of cotton.
passiveincomelg 10y ago
except for vegans i guess

127 points by anthotny 10y ago

Not only is the material made from water, sugar and heat instead of oil (compared to synthetic fabrics), but it also comes from a known genetically encoded template. That genetic template can be varied by an atom here or an atom here with the the flip of a genetic bit. It can even encode additional biological functionality into the fabric itself. Recombinant silk is a pretty cool platform upon which an entire industry can rationally and rapidly tune the properties of new fabrics. Play with the protein, ADF3, orb-weaver dragline silk https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/adf3/ https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/adf3/ from Dan's original paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/msb.2009.62/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/msb.2009.62/full

Razengan 10y ago
I love reading about news of technology like this. Makes me feel like we're getting a step, even if an infinitesimal one, closer to the world of Numenera, where science is, effectively, magic. https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com

buzzybee 10y ago

Can it be made resistant to pest bugs like the clothesmoth or carpet beetle? That would be nice(and in some respects, already possible if you use only synthetic fabrics).

davidgerard 10y ago

Any other Worm readers here? #skitterasaservice

cm2012 10y ago
We'll need Darwin Bark spiders for the good stuff.
- protomyth 10y ago
  The Cracked article on them is fairly informative, funny, and terrifying. http://www.cracked.com/article_19719_6-terrifying-new-creatures-science-just-discovered.html http://www.cracked.com/article_19719_6-terrifying-new-creatu...
noonespecial 10y ago
Bump for Worm. Thats a series that really groked the superhero genre. Made me feel 13 again in the best possible way.
xuva 10y ago
Some evangelism in case someone else happens to have a thing for ridiculously long, ridiculously well-written works of fiction: https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
- andrewflnr 10y ago
  I forget how Eliezer Yudkowsky phrased it, but it's appropriate at this point to give a warning like "do not start reading this unless you have a couple weeks in which to not stop." It's the most intense thing I've ever read, and the stakes just get higher and higher and...

nathankot 10y ago

One of my friends works at a Japanese company called spiber, I think they made a jacket out of spider silk: https://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-spun-from-faux-spider-silk/ https://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-...

Mindless2112 10y ago
> North Face Will Start Selling Parkas Made from Fake Spider Silk for $1,000 [1] ...a bit pricey at this point. Maybe spider-silk-enhanced fabrics would be more reasonable. [1] http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/north-face-fake-spider-silk/ http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/north-face-fake-spider-silk/

agentgt 10y ago

I'm sort of pessimistic. I don't think we will ever have a perfect single textile material. A mixture of materials is more likely. Just because something is light and super strong does not make it comfortable. Otherwise we would all be wearing nylon all the time (or some derivation... nylon is super strong and of course there is Kevlar as well). The problem is nylon is pretty damn uncomfortable. I remember seeing something on PBS where they showed spider silk and I admit it seemed compelling and I can easily see it probably mixed in with other textile yarns. Of course why stop at spiders and not modify geese, goats, and sheep for their incredible and generally efficient fabric production. Synthetics still have a hard time beating goose down for warmth. Is spider silk going to be better for high loft? I doubt it.

Razengan 10y ago
Other than optimal temperature, what does the human skin need to feel "comfort?" Would the below work? [ Body | A layer of comfortable fabric that is only a few atoms thick | Pockets of air | A layer of light+strong magic material like spider silk ] and nanobots embedded throughout the clothing that sense your skin's temperature and heat/vent the air pockets accordingly.
- agentgt 10y ago
  > Other than optimal temperature, what does the human skin need to feel "comfort?" Water... Humidity control and water transport is a huge aspect. This is why wicking is a big deal for base layers. And there is different types of wicking as well: moving to the next layer or just absorbing the water. There are pros and cons to both methods. The synthetics usually transport moisture... but this really sucks if your outer layer is waterproof which is often the case. This is one of the many reason why wool is often used as a base layer. Wool has great humidity control via absorption with out loss of temperature. Some fabrics via absorption become like heat sink conductors (cotton) and others like neoprene (wool). Otherwise you get chaffing, extreme heat loss, fabric freezing to skin, difficult to dry among other things... there is hackneyed expression that hikers have: cotton kills. However wool can only absorb so much water. One of the fundamental problems is that it is really hard to create breathable fabric and waterproof fabric (despite gore-tex marketing claims). But yeah if you had nanotech adjusting to heat/cold and water... sure it would be possible.

aetherson 10y ago

The last time I commented on an article about Bolt Threads, it was June 4, 2015, and the articles said that Bolt expected its products to be available in 2016. I was skeptical. Article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/a-bay-area-startup-spins-lab-grown-silk https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/a-bay-are... HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9659712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9659712 I guess that technically they're just a little late, but honestly an ultra-limited run of ties without any impressive spidersilk properties makes me think that not a lot has changed in the last almost-two-years. We'll see if Bolt can actually make a real serious product. As the article points out, there have been a lot of swings at this particular pitch.

dmix 10y ago
They still seem to have capital to operate and seem to be following through with a sale: https://ties.boltthreads.com/ https://ties.boltthreads.com/ "5-years in the making" is a long time. But I'm not sure the entire process was a failure. They probably have some excellent domain knowledge of value to many bigger firms as a fallback.

protomyth 10y ago

I take it the writer of the headline has not met the Cotton Lobby in the US. We should all be wearing hemp, but they are quite good at their job. North Dakota grew hemp during WWII, but getting it legal again is a pain in the rear. I'm sure spider silk will have a bit of problems too.

forkandwait 10y ago
Is there a suitably geeky, well written (worthy of HN) article on hemp as a fabric? A down to earth hemp clothing website would be cool; like if Costco sold hemp clothes...
- quakeguy 10y ago
  1. http://www.life.ca/naturallife/0906/hemp_fiber_makes_a_comeback.htm http://www.life.ca/naturallife/0906/hemp_fiber_makes_a_comeb... 2. http://www.hemptraders.com/Hemp-Textiles-s/1817.htm http://www.hemptraders.com/Hemp-Textiles-s/1817.htm
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
guelo 10y ago
I don't know if it is necessarily true but the hemp fabrics I've felt have been stiff and scratchy.
- Neliquat 10y ago
  Thats just the unprocessed hippie shit. Thank you stereotypes.
jakobegger 10y ago
I had a hemp shirt. I really loved it, but it was pretty rough. I think you'd have a hard time selling hemp clothes to people who are accustomed to the soft texture of cotton.

passiveincomelg 10y ago

except for vegans i guess