Man, I miss Hinterland Who’s Who.
Better yet, spraying various animals with graphene. Think of string cheese stronger than nylon! How about a pillow filled with stiffer than steel goose down? Could we be making armor out of graphene infused egg shells?
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The big problem with regular spider silk is producing enough of it to be useful. At least one of the articles about this stuff also said that about 80% of the spiders died fairly soon, so it’s even harder to produce enough to be useful.
And regarding some of the other comments, people on Twitter have said things like “Why do you think enhancing the spiders is a good idea?” and (from Ada Palmer) “The best science: both mad AND useful.”
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It will be nice if this research is ever replicated. At the moment, the researchers cannot explain
(1) how isolated particles of nanocarbon mixed into the interior of spider silk are supposed to strengthen it so radically (it’s not like they are forming continuous fibres); or
(2) how particles of nanocarbon sprayed into the neighbourhood of spiders are supposed to enter the spiders.
Even for a junk-science press release produced for the churnalists at New Scientist, going straight to “We can catch aeroplanes falling from the sky!” leaves me suspecting that they primarily seeking an IgNobel Prize.
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