Natural Silk: An Eco-friendly Alternative Of Manipulating Light

New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, such as through glass or plastic fiber optic cables.

Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. Two teams independently exploring possible applications for the material's photonic talents will present their latest breakthroughs at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012, to be held next week in Rochester, N.Y.

Harvest of 'Synthetic' Spider Silk From Bacteria
Procedures to harvest and process synthetic spider silk from bacteria were demonstrated by scientists.

Biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University in Boston will discuss his group's work fabricating concoctions of proteins that make use of silk's optical properties for implantable sensors and other biology-technology interfaces.

Source-Eurekalert

Spider Silk Drawn for Violin Strings
Countless strands of spider silk have been spun by a Japanese researcher to create a set of violin strings.

Preserving Heat-Sensitive Drugs For Long Sans Refrigeration With New Silk Technology
Means to retain the potency of vaccines and drugs, that usually need refrigeration for long periods, at high temperatures by stabilizing them in a silk protein made from silkworm cocoons, found.

Bone Repair Boosted by High-Strength Silk Scaffolds
The first all-polymeric bone scaffold material that is wholly biodegradable and able to offer major mechanical support through repair demonstrated by biomedical engineers at Tufts University.