Becoming the source of petroleum-free plastics and super-strong fabrics, is the ‘hagfish’, a bottom-dwelling creature that hasn’t evolved for 300 million years. According to research by scientists in Canada’s University of Guelph the hagfish, which produces a sticky slime when threatened, is actually a kind of protein that turns into choking strands of tough fibres, which scientists have managed to harvest by dissolving it in liquid, and then reassemble its structure by spinning it like silk.
The resultant textile is an affordable, sustainable alternative to oil-based polymers with remarkable mechanical properties that rival those of spider silk. In the process of becoming commercial it also has the potential to be isolated, purified spun, and woven into high-performance biomaterials.
