Dutch artist creates 'bulletproof' skin with spider silk

[X-Files]

A small sample of human skin has been bio-engineered to include spider's silk between its layers. The Netherlands Forensics Institute has test-fired low-speed rifle bullets at it, and shown that it halts them.

 

Wah wah wah - here ya go, a link

Edited August 20, 2011 by X-Files

[JWB]

Link is bad. 404 message.

[Ssnake]

Copy and paste the full line.

[Paul G.]

Not hard on the eyes either...

 

[X-Files]

More info

http://www.da4ga.nl/?page_id=10

 

SKYNET is pleased.

Edited August 20, 2011 by X-Files

[Guest Jason L]

How slow is slow? The sample never survived a full velocity .22 LR hit and it was simply edge supported with no backing (even a backing with the rheological properties of gel/soft tissue makes a difference). Base skin all by itself as a membrane is ridiculously tough/resilient against relatively slow impacts for what it is anyway, so where is the proof the genetic modification actually did anything.

 

Oh wait it's an art project, never mind.

Edited August 21, 2011 by Jason L

[DB]

Doesn't look like genetics has anything to do with it.

Unless I misunderstand the commentary, a woven sheet of spider silk was sandwiched between two artificially grown skin layers.

 

Let's make the huge leap to it actually being possible to put this onto/into a human being - just how much difference could it make to dealing with residual penetration and/or blunt trauma assuming it was under other armour?

 

It's going to be "some" rather than "none", but whether it's "enough to be worth creating weird humans" is another question.

[Guest Jason L]

Doesn't look like genetics has anything to do with it.

Unless I misunderstand the commentary, a woven sheet of spider silk was sandwiched between two artificially grown skin layers.

 

Let's make the huge leap to it actually being possible to put this onto/into a human being - just how much difference could it make to dealing with residual penetration and/or blunt trauma assuming it was under other armour?

 

It's going to be "some" rather than "none", but whether it's "enough to be worth creating weird humans" is another question.

 

Yeah you're right.

 

Doubly false advertising (and even less impressive) then because they use terms like "transgenic", and "genetically combined". Instead, it simply looks like they either used the silk layer as a tissue scaffold (or added one to the silk layer) and grew/graft skin layers onto the scaffold.

 

Which is cool as it sounds, is apparently pretty routine stuff in modern tissue engineering.

Edited August 21, 2011 by Jason L

[X-Files]

Oh wait it's an art project, never mind.

 

So was the original of this - http://208.84.116.223/forums/index.php?showtopic=34513

 

I'll make it simple to understand - sometimes art drives science.

[Guest Jason L]

So was the original of this - http://208.84.116.22...showtopic=34513

 

I'll make it simple to understand - sometimes art drives science.

 

Eh....except da Vinci was a polymath and mostly an engineer who happened to be an excellent artist as well. You're free to define anything that is creative as art, but technical drawings (even conceptual ones) are other things first and foremost before they are art. da Vinci's tank is one of those.

 

Still doesn't absolve the fact that other than the cool factor this isn't good science, or art or even engineering.