Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts

Friday, January 13, 2012

Can genetic engineering explain Peter Parker's / Spiderman's origins?

Spiderman has spider strength, spider strength and web shooting... and the ability to defy gravity!  How does Spiderman's powers hold up to scientific fact?  Which ones can be scientifically backed up, and which ones are pure science fiction?

Peter Parker gained his abilities after getting bit by a radioactive spider.  How much of this origin story could really happen?  Start the first video below at 3:40 to find out.

  1. If an irradiated spider bites a person, will it transfer its radiation to the human?  
  2. How might it be explained by genetic engineering?  
 

  1. Transferring traits from one organism to another at the stage of inception is one things but...  is it possible to genetically modify a nearly grown man like Peter Parker?  The answer might be found in retroviruses (such as HIV) 
  2. How could the genetic information passed along also help Peter Parker climb walls, shoot webs, and have the proportional strength of a spider?   (Beginning of video through 3:30)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Bulletproof Skin??? Can we make a bulletproof human?

Scientists have created bulletproof skin by using spider silk... Actually, it's created using Spider Goats - goats that have genetically modified to have spider DNA in their milk. Believe it!










Researchers Create 'Bulletproof Skin'


Could genetically modified silk someday make humans bulletproof? It's not pure science-fiction fantasy

Forget the vest, genetically modified silk may soon protect people from bullets. Photo: corbis

Silk — one of the strongest natural materials known — has a long history of use in combat: Legend has it that Genghis Khan once issued tightly woven silk vests to his horsemen as protection against their enemies' arrows. Researchers have now taken silk one step further, and developed a fabric made of silk proteins that is strong enough to stop a bullet. Their ultimate goal: To give a person a layer of bulletproof skin. Here, a brief guide to this breakthrough: