BY ARUNA GANESAN
GOWNS and saris made out of silk are all-time women’s favourite choice of clothes. Just a few years back a rare golden silk gown went on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. What made it to be placed on a display is not the ‘gold’ aspect, but the story behind the gown making. Four years of collecting golden orb spiders by 70 people in Madagascar. Wondering what has spiders to do with silk gown? [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
All spiders produce silk but not all spin webs. Here’s what comes next. A dozen of workers extracted 80 feet silk filaments from those golden orb spiders to make that 11 foot by 4-foot textile.
Today, the US army is very much attracted to body armour made up of spider silk than bulletproof vests. Spider silk is found to be tougher than the material found in the making of bulletproof vests which is para-aramid synthetic fibre. The traditional way of extracting spider silk is by ‘silking’ the spider which is similar to milking. But the scarce amount that is resulted from silking is not enough to make valuables. Biotechnology helps spider silk to be mass produced artificially with the help of silkworms.
Not just that. In order to add safety to the spider silk armour, scientists are investigating about the toughness of certain animal features to design their own version. The alligator gar is not an easy fish to kill. Found in the waters of southern states like Louisiana and Texas, it sports nearly impenetrable scales.
That makes it ideal inspiration for flexible armours that can stand up to punctures and lacerations. Conches are a good inspiration for armour because their shells represent some of the strongest armours found in nature. These animals build impact-resistant homes that are 10 times tougher than nacre, or mother of pearl.
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