U.S. Military Testing Genetically Engineered Spider Silk for Body Armor

[babajees]

U.S. Military Testing Genetically Engineered Spider Silk for Body Armor


Golden Silk Spiders (Nephila clavipes) - By Coveredinsevindust at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10202324


Spider silk is considered one of nature’s toughest substances, comparable in strength to the Kevlar plastic present in bulletproof vests but is way more flexible. Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, a firm from Ann Arbor, Michigan, genetically altered silkworms to manufacture a fiber that is just like pure spider silk. Last week, the firm announced a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contract to test this genetically engineered silk, which they are calling Dragon Silk™ for potential use in body armor.

There is a reason that silk from worms is affordable but you possibly can’t purchase dresses made out of spider silk: spiders are cannibalistic and territorial, which makes farming them for material manufacturing ridiculously exorbitant.

Enter the wonderful new marvel that’s called genetic engineering. In 2000, researchers first isolated and sequenced the key proteins that create spider silk (ampullate spidroin-1, spidroin-2, and so on.) That allowed scientists to reproduce spider silk proteins in E coli bacteria, yeast and other substances in somewhat the same method as pharmaceutical firms produce proteins for medicine. However, these techniques didn’t yield spider silk in large enough quantities.

The technology behind Dragon Silk relies in part on the work of Donald L. Jarvis, Malcolm J. Fraser, and their colleagues. As they describe in this research paper, they introduced particular pieces of spider DNA into silkworm eggs, creating a completely new kind of silkworm that can spin spider silk. This enabled them to get the silk in larger quantities.

The Army’s Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, or PM–SPIE office, will give Kraig Biocraft $99,962 to test a series of “shoot packs” to see how the fabric stands up to abuse.

Read more: U.S. Military Testing Genetically Engineered Spider Silk for Body Armor

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-bioc...-hybrid-silk-production-agreement-in-vietnam/

 

[Thorough Pro]

That reminded me of this research on spider silk from goat milk

 

[I S I]

Iron Man suit is the way to go & they're working on it.

 

[AlyxMS]

I'm all for scientific achievements, whether it's used for military or not coz it will benefit us all some day, just like the GPS.

Way to go, US!
(Btw don't bio-engineer some doomsday killer spiders and have them murder us all plz)

 

[Oldman1]

I'm all for scientific achievements, whether it's used for military or not coz it will benefit us all some day, just like the GPS.

Way to go, US!
(Btw don't bio-engineer some doomsday killer spiders and have them murder us all plz)

Can't make such promises. I'm still worried about AI development.

http://www.sciencealert.com/ai-just-defeated-expert-human-fighter-pilots-in-an-air-combat-simulator

AI just defeated a human fighter pilot in an air combat simulator
Retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee recently went up against ALPHA, an artificial intelligence developed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate.

The contest? A high-fidelity air combat simulator. And the Colonel lost.

In fact, all the other AI’s that the Air Force Research Lab had in their possession also lost to ALPHA…and so did all of the other human experts who tried their skills against ALPHA’s superior algorithms.

And did we mention ALPHA achieves superiority while running on a $US35 Raspberry Pi?

Saying that Lee is experienced when it comes to aerial combat is a remarkable understatement. He is an instructor who has trained with thousands of U.S. Air Force pilots. he is also an Air Battle Manager who has been fighting against AI opponents in air combat simulations since the 1980s.

Yet, he was not successful in winning against ALPHA. Not even once. Indeed, not even when the researchers deliberately handicapped ALPHA’s aircraft, impeding it in terms of speed, turning, missile capability, and sensor use.

"I was surprised at how aware and reactive it was. It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. It moved instantly between defensive and offensive actions as needed," Lee said.

ALPHA makes decisions using a genetic fuzzy tree system, which is a subtype of fuzzy logic algorithms.

It can calculate strategies based on its opponent’s movements 250 times faster than a person can blink - a speed that gives it an undeniable advantage in an arena where a mix of advanced skills in aerospace physics and intuition are required.

The future of air combat

The development team says ALPHA would be a valuable asset to team with a fleet of human pilots, as it can can quickly map out accurate strategies and coordinate with a team of aircraft.

UC aerospace professor Kelly Cohen said: "ALPHA could continuously determine the optimal ways to perform tasks commanded by its manned wingman, as well as provide tactical and situational advice to the rest of its flight."

I'm all for scientific achievements, whether it's used for military or not coz it will benefit us all some day, just like the GPS.

Way to go, US!
(Btw don't bio-engineer some doomsday killer spiders and have them murder us all plz)

http://observer.com/2015/08/stephen...ill-gates-warn-about-artificial-intelligence/

Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates Warn About Artificial Intelligence

Some of the most popular sci-fi movies—2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator, The Matrix, Transcendence, Ex Machina, and many others—have been based on the notion that artificial intelligence will evolve to a point at which humanity will not be able to control its own creations, leading to the demise of our entire civilization. This fear of rapid technology growth and our increasing dependence on it is certainly warranted, given the capabilities of current machines built for military purposes.

--------------------------------------

Many things you see in tv or movies are becoming a reality.

 

[AlyxMS]

Can't make such promises. I'm still worried about AI development.

Maybe we can have some sort of law to ban AI(with self awareness) like in Mass Effect just like what we did with human cloning?

I think as long as we don't allow the AI to modify themselves, then they won't all turn evil in one day.
Uh, it's probably just wishful thinking.

Though in Mass Effect, it is a gradual progress. It started as a simple servant robot and people kept improving on it. They didn't even know that their robots are becoming self aware, and it took an entire species to be driven out from their home planet for the rest of the world to realize they should ban AI.

Let's hope real life is not as dramatic as a video game plot.

 

[Oldman1]

Maybe we can have some sort of law to ban AI(with self awareness) like in Mass Effect just like what we did with human cloning?

I think as long as we don't allow the AI to modify themselves, then they won't all turn evil in one day.
Uh, it's probably just wishful thinking.

Though in Mass Effect, it is a gradual progress. It started as a simple servant robot and people kept improving on it. They didn't even know that their robots are becoming self aware, and it took an entire species to be driven out from their home planet for the rest of the world to realize they should ban AI.

Let's hope real life is not as dramatic as a video game plot.

Well whether its tv, movies or games, can't prevent the human curiosity or ambition to do something like creating AI. Hence why people like Elon and Stephen wanted to prevent such thing to come to fruition because we are capable of such event. Hence why I fear it.