There you are sitting down to a nice quiet meal with your nuclear family, praising God for His bounty, when a bunch of jackboots burst in because of that free-speech Facebook post you put up in 2020.
As your face smashes against the carpet, you can't help but notice how silky soft the officer's bulletproof vest is.
It's like you're being handcuffed by a cloud.
We're not far off from this scenario being a reality thanks to scientists at Donghua University in China.
Well, the silky-soft bulletproof vests anyway.
The researchers apparently used CRISPR to replace the DNA which codes the primary silk protein in a silkworm with the DNA which codes the webbing of an orb spider.
The result?
A silk that is as strong as spiderwebs.
For reference, it's 6 times stronger than kevlar, which is strong enough to stop a bullet.
The researchers were so surprised and excited by the new material that they're hoping to spin up mass production.
"Spider silk stands as a strategic resource in urgent need of exploration," said Mi. "The exceptionally high mechanical performance of the fibers produced in this study holds significant promise in this field. This type of fiber can be utilized as surgical sutures, addressing a global demand exceeding 300 million procedures annually."
"This concept of ‘localization,' introduced in this thesis, along with the proposed minimal structural model, represents a significant departure from previous research," says Mi. "We are confident that large-scale commercialization is on the horizon."
So, if you've ever wondered why those radical, future politicians in Bill and Ted were all wearing silk robes, now we know.
It was body armor.
The future is now.
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