Spider Silk Strength

Spider silk is a freak of materials: as strong as steel by weight, as stretchy as rubber, and light as cotton. No synthetic fiber matches all three at once, yet it is just protein a spider spins at room temperature.

We cannot farm spiders; they eat each other. The workaround is to move silk genes into goats, bacteria, and silkworms and harvest the protein from them. The payoff being chased: lighter body armor, dissolving surgical thread, and tough, biodegradable fabric.