Tufts University invents process for silk lenses
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/20/silk-lens-optics.html
I usually report on the silk stuff that I’m doing, myself – but this one is too cool not to mention!
If I’m reading it right, they’re using an aqueous solution of sericin. If so, it might even be possible to extract the stuff, and still have the silk for textile (or other) use.
that’s sooooo cool!!! Especially the part about being able to still use the silk.
Well, they didn’t say that part. I’m just extrapolating from what they *did* explain – if they take off the aqueous solution (which is the sericin) the nonsoluble part (the fibroin) should still be OK
still a faboo hypothesis… unless they do something stupid like mash it… you’d have to spin it then right? Just makes sense that they’d try to use a by product for something useful…
And they could even sell the pupae to somebody who would want to eat them, too! 😉
*shudder* ick ick ick!
Hey, that’s my department! Dr. Kaplan is my PhD advisor 🙂
For the drug delivery work I do, we actually boil the cocoons to remove the sericin then dissolve the fibery fibroin in lithium bromide. So it’s the same stuff as is used for textiles…just essentially melted.
Small world 🙂
It is unclear in the article, but we use the fibroin, not the sericin.
There are people in this world that ACTUALLY eat them! Not that I would…
I had to try one, just to say that I had. Tasted like it smells.
I really do want to find some excellent cook who knows how to dress them up right – I know that I’ve eaten some horrible things in delicious sauces, and it seems like there’s got to be some way.
I always display a can of bondaegi, from Korea, when I do my talks – they eat them as a salty snack, like we do peanuts.
That IS neat, but in a completely off topic way, I have a question for you. I often shop for gifts at the Greater Good network, and they recently had some silk objects produced “non-cruelty” as they put it. Apparently, the items are made in a village of very observant sorts who harvest the cocoons AFTER they hatch. Does this impact the silk in any unfavorable way, or is it usually not done this way just for speed and convenience?
Hmm.
Did you see my page on Peace Silk:
http://www.wormspit.com/peacesilk.htm
?
This silk has pretty much always been used – it’s just that now people are making a point that they’re using this particular variety of waste because the moth emerged alive.
Of course, they’re not mentioning that it emerged alive to be immediately bred, and its eggs (if female) hatched to create silkworms who would be killed in the typical manner…
No, I didn’t see it, thanks for the link. It was exactly this sort of kind of commercialized cynicism I was wondering about…thus why I didn’t buy any of the offered items. Thank you so much for the answers I needed. Now, I can answer those who question ME!
I’m not brave enough to eat an INSECT, I admit!
Hi! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which
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