Dutch artist creates 'bulletproof' skin with spider silk
A small sample of human skin has been bio-engineered to include spider's silk between its layers. The Netherlands Forensics Institute has test-fired low-speed rifle bullets at it, and shown that it halts them.
This summer, a very unusual science project is on display at a museum in Leiden, southwest of Amsterdam. There's a piece of human skin that's been genetically combined to grow in conjunction with spider silk. This unique combination makes the skin bulletproof against a .22 caliber rifle - the standard for a Type 1 bulletproof vest. This means it can stop a 2.6-gram (0.09-ounce) bullet traveling at 329 meters per second (1,080 feet per second).
The project, which is appropriately named "2.6g 329m/s," is the creation of Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi. She says she was inspired by Randy Lewis, an American professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming, who in 2010, managed to genetically engineer goats whose milk contains the proteins that create spider silk. Essaidi contacted Lewis, and added other partners in the Netherlands to create a special type of human skin that can resist relatively slow-moving bullets. Her piece is part of the "Designers & Artists 4 Genomics" exhibition currently on display at the Naturalis Museum in Leiden, and will be there until January 2012.
Source (plus interview): http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15330421,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-eu-2092-rdf
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