For more news and videos visit ☛ http://english.ntdtv.com<br />Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision<br />Add us on Facebook ☛ http://facebook.com/NTDTelevision<br /> Add us on Facebook ☛http://me.lt/9P8MUn<br /><br />A Dutch artist has blended spider silk with human skin to produce a superstrong material that can stop a bullet at half its regular speed. Jalila Essaïdi collaborated with cell biologist Abdoelwaheb El Ghalbzouri to produce the material which is three times tougher than kevlar.<br /><br />[,,,]<br /><br />Time to move over Kevlar? Not quite yet, but the new weave could turn out to have various medical uses.<br /><br />Essaïdi's original art work is a lab sample of skin tissue stored in a refrigerator and accompanied by a video showing a gunshot test on the material.<br /><br />[...]<br /><br />[Abdoelwaheb El Ghalbzouri, Leiden University Medical Center]:<br />"Spider silk has shown to be three times stronger than kevlar, so the bullet proof vests are generated with 33 layers of kevlar. In this experiment we shot a bullet at our spider silk model, we had only four layers of silk which is of course nothing compared to 33, so we believe that if we generate a skin model with 33 layers, I think we can definitely hold a bullet, yeah, I am 100 percent sure about it."<br /><br />Bullet proof vests made of spider silk may be several years from reality, but the experiments have demonstrated other possibilities for the material, such as in skin grafting for burn-wound patients.<br /><br />Some studies show that incorporating regular silk in burn wounds encourages faster healing and less scarring.<br /><br />While human cells appear to adhere well to spider silk, more research is needed.<br /><br />[Abdoelwaheb El Ghalbzouri, Leiden University Medical Center]:<br />"Next to skin, spider silk could be a very good scaffold for bone regeneration, cartilage, tendons, ligaments."<br /><br />Other applications for the spider silk alone include surgical stitches, thanks to its strength and elasticity, as well as parachutes and parachute cords.
