Next Big Thing – bulletproof spider-goat silk skin

You’re just stringing together random words

It really exists. Artist Jalila Essaïdi has created a synthetic tissue made from a matrix of bioengineered human skin cells and a spider silk weave extracted from transgenic goats.

Science be praised! Bulletproof, you say?

Yup. The bioengineered skin managed to stop a bullet fired at half speed (164.5 m/s). It didn’t hold up to a bullet fired at full speed, though.

Excellent! Where do I sign up for a bulletproof skin transplant? I will only use my powers for good…

There’s a bit of a way to go before this material becomes a practical proposition – though Essaïdi is hoping to use it in skin transplants, so a Deus Ex-esque future of bulletproof people sporting hybrid skins made from spider-goat silk could be on the cards.

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Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home