1400!? Why am I still stuck in 209?!
1400!? Why am I still stuck in 209?!You just need to play for another 1200 game years :) .
The world of DF has giant spiders, and harvesting the silk is -already done-. I think it would certainly fall into the technology of the times to make use of this resource for armor or other things. Giant Spidersilk tunics should be mostly peirce-proof, for instance... even if if it'd offer next to no protection against hammers.
I can even see dwarven armorers weaving giant spidersilk into mail, or forging an alloy like the article above. Again, the reason we're only doing this now is because of -availability-, not technology really.
They used a process called atomic layer deposition, which not only coated spider dragline silks with metal but also caused some metal ions to penetrate the fibers and react with their protein structure.
The reason research is being done on it now is because they genetically modified goats to produce spider silk enzymes in their milk, making it harvestable en masse.I'm sorry, but I have to say it. Spider-Goat? That is awesome.
The Chinese have been making silk for millennia. They've also had reasonably good access to metal (not as good as Europe did, but still more than enough for experimentation). Do you think they wouldn't have tried combining the two?Correct me if I'm wrong, but chinese silk is from silkworms? Making it easier to harvest but not the same thing? I've never heard of them traditionally using spiders. In a world where the silk industry is dominated by spider silk, it's slightly more feasible to imagine they'd have come up with something like this. I still think it's out of the tech range to have super silk alloys though. And Fossaman is right, silk was used as secondary armour because it's extremely light and flexible, good for protecting joints where metal is completely impractical.
I think silk armor is a good idea, but it should require more cloth to make and it should be heavier. Think about most silk shirts you've seen. Are those going to stop an arrow? Spider silk may be tougher, but you still need multiple layers.
You just got magic arced. Wonderful. Silkworm silk is not the same thing as spider silk. Silkworms make coocoons. Spiders make... ____ Ummm... Drop ropes? Nets? Words... I forget. Something really awesome sounding and cool. Fill in the blank please?
Not quite; silk manufacture involves killing the worms after they've cocooned themselves by dropping the cocoons in boiling water,
Zchris: Spider 'parachutes' are actually just really long strands of silk. Nothing really parachute-ish about them.Yeah, the babies go floating with them, to spread themselves out so they don't directly compete against each other.
By the way, silk was used as armor in the real world as arrow protection-- not because the arrows wouldn't puncture the silk, it would, but because the silk bind to the barb on the head making the wound less deadly, and making it easy to pull the arrow back out.
...you just tug slightly and they pop out...
Approaches being tried include deriving fiber from the milk of transgenic goats with an extra spider-silk gene...
The reason research is being done on it now is because they genetically modified goats to produce spider silk enzymes in their milk, making it harvestable en masse.
Spider-Goat?
Goat/Spider hybrids are actually making the spider silk manufacture process much easier.
At a cognitive level about equal to the average mouse.
Jumping spiders have extremely acute vision; they can see just as well as humans can.
Jumping spiders have extremely acute vision; they can see just as well as humans can.The second seems oversimplified, if anything. Spider eyes are so different from human eyes that a direct comparison doesn't make much sense.
As someone who enjoys making/dressing up in armor, and recreating Medieval combat (Active SCA member) let me offer some insight on Armor construction.
Woven Silk/Adamantium would probably be able to protect from being skewered or cut in half.
You know how Frodo got hit by a spear in Moria and his mithril vest stopped him from dying, but he ended up with a huge bruise?
Which is why PETA is so horribly wrong about humans.
You know how Frodo got hit by a spear in Moria and his mithril vest stopped him from dying, but he ended up with a huge bruise? Same principle.
He was wounded (bruised) due to the force of the spear being converted from "piercing type" damage to "bludgeon type" damage.
a method banned from being used on criminals subject to the death penalty due to being "cruel and unusual punishment."
The question is whether or not those people are in pain at all
QuoteThe question is whether or not those people are in pain at all
Apperantly the issue is that it actually just paralyses them.
No.
That is one agent in the formula, but there's also a very powerful general anesthetic.
No.
That is one agent in the formula, but there's also a very powerful general anesthetic.
That's the idea anyway. Except that the drugs are administered by total incompetents as often as not, since the only people qualified to do so are by definition barred from participating.
What makes you say that a vet working at an animal shelter, is likely not to be competant? The shelters I've been to(admittingly not many) have fully trained vets who work/volunteer) there to care for animals found injured or to perform spaiding and neutering.
Unless Frodo's back was against a large movement imparing structure
QuoteThe question is whether or not those people are in pain at all
Apperantly the issue is that it actually just paralyses them.
There's a difference between knowing how to be a vet and knowing how to perform lethal injections.
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