Why Spider Silk?

Original paragraph

Humans love spider webs, but aren't so crazy about their builders.

While spiders make some people flinch, there's no escaping the appreciation for their masterful web construction.

"There's a lot of interest in spider silk fibers because they're stronger than almost any other manmade fiber and they're also elastic," says Randy Lewis, professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Since ancient times, there's been a fascination with spider webs because of that combination of qualities. There's folklore going back to the first century A.D., when spider webs were used as dressings for wounds. Twenty-first century experts are looking at silk for many of the same reasons.

"So there are a lot of applications," continues Lewis. "People are interested in them for things like artificial ligaments and artificial tendons, bulletproof vests and even car airbags--something that would allow you to be contained, but not blown back in your seat."

But, whether it's for super-strong sutures for surgery or an air bag, how do you come up with enough raw material? Spider farms have been tried, but arachnids tend to kill each other.

"The problem is that the spiders are territorial, and so no matter what you do, there are only a certain number of spiders you can put in a certain space," says Lewis.

Key ideas:

• There is a lot of interest in spider silk fibers because they're stronger than almost any other manmade fiber
• Spiders are not farm-friendly animals which makes their silk difficult to mass produce

Sources
O'Brien, Miles, and Marsha Walton. "Research Areas." Nsf.gov. N.p., 03 May 2010. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/spidersilk.jsp>. 
Fecht, Sarah. "6 Spider-Silk Superpowers." Popular Mechanics. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <ww.popularmechanics.com/science/health/med-tech/6-spider-silk-superpowers#slide-1>.

Paraphrasing

Spider silk has generated lots of interest because they are stronger than almost any other manmade fiber. It is stronger than steel and more elastic than a rubber band. Because of that, spider silk has sparked dozens of ideas of new and innovative ways of how to use it but nobody has had a sufficient amount of spider silk material to conduct full scale tests of these would-be products. Some possible products include lighter, stronger bulletproof clothing, artificial skin, better bandages, gentler airbags, elastic ligaments, and surgical stitches. Figure 1 below shows a spider weaving its web out of spider silk in the wild.

Figure 1: A spider making a web out of spider silk
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/mG/Spider-Silk-01-0112-lgn.jpg

People have tried making spider farms to harvest spider silk but so far, nobody has been successful. This is due to the fact that spiders tend to be murderous and cannibalistic to each other. This makes their silk difficult to mass produce and harvesting it from the wild  is a very laborious and time consuming process.

So, how can we get the amazing powers of spider silk without having to harvest it from the wild? The answer to this question is goats - and not just any ordinary goats but transgenic goats.