US Army using spiders to save soldiers' lives

The U.S. army is turning to mother nature to improve Kevlar body armor—— in the form of Silkworms.

The armor can burden soldiers with 30 extra pounds of weight in extreme heat.

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So Kraig Biocraft Labs genetically engineered silkworms to produce spider silk. The silkworms generate cocoons to transform into moths, and those cocoons can also be harvested into silk. Silkworms generally produce traditional silk, but Biocraft has engineered these to mass producespider silk.

According to CNN, Kraig Biocraft's COO, Jon Rice, says spider silk is "almost as strong as kevlar and about 10 times more flexible."

The company received nearly $100,000 from the government to begin producing test packs and see how the material holds.

Mobility is vital to soldiers especially when many training missions consist of soldiers leaving their vehicles and bases to engage local populations.

Although research is in the early stages, the potential application of spider silk could open up many possibilities for all U.S. armed forces.

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