Does Whatever a Spider Can

According to the BBC, researchers led by Prof. Don Jarvis of the University of Wyoming have succeeded in genetically modifying silkworms to spin silk using the much stronger silk of spiders.

Researchers have tried for years to get the best of both worlds - super-strong silk in industrial quantities - by transplanting genes from spiders into worms. But the resulting genetically modified worms have not produced enough spider silk until now.

GM worms produced by a team led by Professor Don Jarvis of Wyoming University seem to be producing a composite of worm and spider silk in large amounts - which the researchers say is just as tough as spider silk.

Commenting on the work, Dr Christopher Holland from the University of Oxford, said that the development represented a step toward being able to produce toughened silk commercially.

So, either we get a wonderful new industrial material ... or the world ends with all of us wrapped in steel-tough silk before being devoured by venomous worms.  Great.