They're as smooth as silk

To me, there’s something unworldly about the cocoon. And I’m not talking about the wonderful Ron Howard movie by the same name, which did, in fact, have a basis in science fiction. I’m talking about those oval, white fuzzy things inside of which caterpillars turn into butterflies and some spiders turn into, well, spiders.

 

And speaking of spiders, I consider them and other strange-looking specimens of a certain ilk definitely alien. I refer to toads (oh, yes, toads, with those bulging eyes); lizards; alligators and centipedes, just to name a few. I’m serious. I really believe these creatures are creatures that are not from our green planet. Do I have proof? How does it feel to let a black, wooly spider climb up your bare forearm? Just a little bit weird, right? And don’t get my wife started about centipedes.

 

All of the ickyness aside, scientists have found a very clever use for alien technology.

 

The development and successful testing of a method for unreeling the strands of silk in wild silkworm cocoons could clear the way for establishment of new silk industries not only in Asia but also in vast areas of Africa and South America. The report appears in ACS’ journal Biomacromolecules.

Fritz Vollrath, Tom Gheysens and colleagues explain that silk is made by unraveling— or unreeling — the fine, soft thread from cocoons of silkmoths. The practice began as far back as 3500 BC in ancient China, where silk was the fabric of royalty. Today, most silk comes from cocoons of the domesticated Mulberry silkworm (bred from a species native to Asia) because they are easy to unreel into long continuous strands. The cocoons formed by “wild” species are too tough for this process, so harsher methods are sometimes used. However, these methods damage the strands, producing a poor-quality silk. To overcome this challenge to the widespread commercial use of wild cocoons, the researchers developed a new way to loosen the strands without damaging them.

 

The group found that the surfaces of wild cocoons were coated with a mineral layer and that removing this layer (“demineralizing”) made it easy to unreel the cocoons into long continuous strands with commercial reeling equipment. These strands were just as long and strong as those from Mulberry silkworm cocoons. The researchers say that the new method could expand the silk industry to new areas of the world where wild silkworms thrive.

 

For more details, go to cocoons.

 

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