An urban legend? Hardly. The material is known as BioSteel, and has been developed by a Nexia Biotechnologies. It takes advantage of the strength of silk protein and the lactating abilities of the goat, along with some apparent genetic similarities between the spider’s silk glands and the goat’s mammary glands.
In 1998, Nexia implanted a single spider gene into the egg of a goat, which led to the birth of a healthy female goat named Willow. After Willow became a mother herself, the milk she began to produce contained a special silk protein which was used to create BioSteel.
After the initial tests proved successful, the project moved forward. Today, several of these goats live on a special farm in Plattsburgh, New York.
What makes BioSteel so special is that it is extremely lightweight and flexible but is up to 20 times stronger than a comparable amount of steel. The potential uses for such a material are widespread in nature and staggering in number.
Article comments
1 - Celestine
That sounds like what Spiderman would use to refill his web shooters ;)
2 - awsome
this = awsome
3 - L Cue
Celestine beat me to it, but what's next, SpiderMan for real? Wolverine? The Spectacular Spider Goat!
4 - Bert
At five years of age I was bitten by a Black Widow Spider. Spent a week in the hospital. Years later attending Havard I became aware of some peculiar material coming from my Nostrils. Over the years I. I will continue this later.