Goats?

This is coolbert:

"Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web, any size,
. . . Is he strong? Listen bud—
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead."

NOT necessarily radioactive blood here, but gene splicing - - YES!

Research, successful, funded by the U.S. military, the goal to replicate the silk of the spider. A replication eventually on a commercial basis, military applications being many and varied. SPIDER SILK IS STRONG!

Spider silk being five to ten times stronger than steel!!

Scientists using gene splicing techniques, able to "cross" a spider with a goat. The milk of the goat then processed in a patented [secret?] manner - - the end product being spider silk in commercially available quantities. Hitherto - - an impossibility.




Science fiction become fact. That gene splicing and "crossing" of dissimilar species being very worrisome to some, regardless of the results, benign or otherwise.

1. "What's Stronger Than Steel? Spider Silk"

"David Pogue Looks at How Science Tries to Match What Spiders Produce"

"Technically, spider dragline silk is five times as strong as steel."

As described, the proposed military applications of spider silk are:

* "bulletproof vests"
* "parachute cables"
* "arresting cables"
* "artificial ligaments, tendons, and bones for wounded soldiers"

2. "Meet Spider Goat - the DNA-enhanced web-flinging nanny that may one day knit bones"

"After the milk is collected, it's taken back to a laboratory where the silk protein is filtered out. It solidifies when exposed to air and is wound onto a roller. Prof Lewis said the team collects about four metres of silk for every four drops of protein they gather."

Granted, this "procedure" is still experimental? You will need a large herd or herds of such "gene-spliced" goats to produce the abundance of milk needed for the quantities of silk needed. But the idea is worthy?

And too, someone will perceive a malignant mentality at work here? The military is involved? Alarm bells going off all over the place? NEXT, the gorilla and human cross?

coolbert.