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Silk is an extraordinary history that spans continents and millennia in which author, Aarathi Prasad weaves together the complex story of the queen of fabrics journeying from the moths of China, Indonesia and India to the spiders of South America and Madagascar, to the silk-producing molluscs of the Mediterranean.
Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global history, culture, natural history, and future of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia.
For 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 a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet.
