Humans have been harvesting silkworm cocoons to spin into textiles for millennia, but new technologies mean we’re continue to improve our techniques for making the luxurious thread. This week, for instance, researchers at Japan’s National Institute for Agrobiological Sciences announced that they have genetically engineered silkworms that produce red, orange, and green colored silks which glow beneath fluorescent light. Needless to say, the development could have huge ramifications for the textile and black light painting industries alike.
Led by researchers Tetsuya Iizuka and Toshiki Tamura, the team bred 20,000 transgenic silkworms by transplanting them with genes from species that create their own natural fluorescent proteins — namely two species of coral for the red and orange silks, with the green hue coming courtesy of a breed of jellyfish. While appearing fairly normal under normal lighting conditions, the neon shades become apparent under fluorescent light.
via Geekosystem
