Silk! The ancient material is soft, luxurious and… incredibly versatile for the future. New uses and manufacturing techniques for silk have been discovered and you can use it as a vein replacement, bone replacement, optical fibers, microneedles, cups, holograms and more.
It’s amazing, Fiorenzo Omenetto discusses the usefulness of silk in a TED talk and it’s well worth a watch (if only to see how much Omenetto loves silk). But seriously, silk is sustainable, biodegradable, biocompatible, edible and technological. If you combine it with gold sensors, you can even make silk LED tattoos. Silk, silk, silk!
It’s been around for more than 5000 years but scientists have reverse engineered the silk cocoon and we re-develop it into something even more amazing. I love when people smarter than me apply themselves. [TED]
Image credit: Shutterstock/Lana