Body armour made from silk is being developed – but this apparently cutting-edge idea is centuries old
Retrieved on:
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
The researchers modified the genes of silkworms to make them produce spider silk instead of their own silk.
Key Points:
- The researchers modified the genes of silkworms to make them produce spider silk instead of their own silk.
- Harnessing the properties of spider silk has been a longstanding aim because the material is as strong as steel, yet also highly elastic.
- However, the idea of using silk to make bulletproof vests is not a new idea.
- Five years later, Dr Goodfellow published further observations in “Notes on the Impenetrability of Silk to Bullets” in a journal called The Southern California Practioneer.
- Using Goodfellow’s findings, the Catholic priest Casimir Zeglen (1869–1927) would later invent a silk bulletproof vest.
- But the potential for silk as ballistic body armour had been recognised more than two centuries earlier, by Leibniz.
- Instead, he thought silk was the most promising material for a bulletproof fabric due to being lightweight, flexible, and strong.
- His idea for silk bulletproof clothing therefore did not get off the drawing board.
Lloyd Strickland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.