Benefits of Using Transgenic Goats to Produce Spider Silk

Original paragraph

Here’s a breakdown of a few of the industries in which spider silk can be used:

Medicine As far as researchers can tell, spider silk is all but invisible to the human body, meaning that our immune systems won’t reject it as they occasionally do with other substances. This makes the elastic and tensile properties of spider silk perfect for making artificial tendons, cartilage and ligaments as well as sutures and sealants. Prototypes of these already exist.

Military As we saw while shooting this story, a layered piece of rubbery silicone with 10 layers of spider silk painted on was enough to stop a bullet. Without those incredibly thin layers of spider silk, the bullet went right through. Properties like this make it an excellent candidate for body and vehicle armor.

Sports Spider silk proteins, when painted as a sheet, have incredibly absorbent qualities for dissipating impact and shock, like from bullets. This could translate to football helmets that protect our heads better than any before.

Automotive Tires and airbags are standard in every vehicle and could soon incorporate spider silk protein to make them stronger and lighter than ever.

Source
Torres, Phil. "Spiders and Transgenic Goats Lead to New €˜silk Road | Al Jazeera America." Spiders and Transgenic Goats Lead to New €˜silk Road | Al Jazeera America. N.p., 2 May 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. <http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/techknow/articles/2014/5/1/spiders-and-transgenicgoatsleadtonewasilkroada.html>.

Original paragraph

Scientists like working with goats for several reasons; one imagines their tendency not to eat one another comes in near the top of the list. They’re also easy to breed and handle, and pound-for-pound, goats produce as much milk as cows. But while a goat doesn’t weigh any more than a person, a cow weighs half as much as a car.

Source
Ferguson, Cat. "Mixing Spider DNA and Goat Embryos Produces Milk With a Side of Silk." TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2014. <http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/04/10/gmo-goats>.

Key ideas:

• Spider silk can produce materials like never before in multiple industries including medicine, military, sports and automotive
• Goats are farm friendly animals
• Goats are easy to breed and handle
• Goats produce as much milk as cows pound-for-pound

Paraphrasing

There are three benefits to using transgenic goats to produce spider silk. The first one is that just by using the transgenic goats, stronger and more elastic materials than ever before can be produced. These materials include those in the industries of medicine, military, sports and automotive. The second benefit is that goats are farm friendly animals. They can be kept in large numbers together because they are not cannibalistic like the spiders. In addition to that, they are also easy to breed and handle. The last and most important benefit of using transgenic goats is that they, pound-for-pound, produce as much milk as cows. A cow weighs about half of a car while a goat does not weigh anymore than an average person. These reasons are why the scientists chose the goats to become the transgenic species in the first place.