• Question: is it possible to make a super spider like in spiderman?#

    Asked by layton543 to Michel on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Michel Dugon

      Michel Dugon answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      I’d love it! But unfortunately… we can’t do that (yet). It would be impossible for the moment to mix the DNA of a black widow with the DNA of a Human being.
      What is possible (in theory) though, is to raise a spider in a special box and give it air with a higher content of oxygen. Oxygen concentration help bugs to grow bigger and faster. Then we could give it injections of a particular growth hormone that will make it molt (change) its skin more often. That way, we could expect the spider to grow more than a normal spider from that species… I discussed this idea with a scientist friend a few years ago. We thought it would be a great idea, but we never tried!

      Something else that is really weird is that scientists managed to insert a part of a spider DNA into the DNA of a goat… Now this goat makes milk mixed with spider web! Check it out here: http://phys.org/news194539934.html

Comments