This is Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the Center for East Asian Studies.

What do you get if you cross a spider with a silkworm? Super socks. Don’t get it? Frankly, neither do we but it’s a fact. A Japanese sock manufacturer in Nara Prefecture has joined forces with a university professor to create a superstrong silk thread by injecting spider thread genes into silkworm eggs for a stronger and more elastic pair of socks. The hybrid thread is called spider silk and is expected to be twice as strong and stretchy as conventional silk thread. In addition to sox, spider silk can be used for sutures and fishing line. Well, now that they’ve made silk sox out of a spider’s thread what’s next? A silk purse out of a sow’s ear?

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.