Latest / History Unplugged Podcast
Silk: The History of a Fabric That Was Civilization’s First Burial Cloth, Body Armor, and Much More
Silk—prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty—is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired—from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms—continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer an alternative to such modern materials as plastics.
But it’s history goes much further back, Starting with 1,000 years ago, as caravans crossed…
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