Bullet-Proof Skin now a reality

Imagine you walking out like a superhero from a crime scene where lot of bullets is being sprayed without wearing those hefty bullet proof vests. It happens only in movies you may say, but now it is reality. Scientists work day and night to invent cool things in order to make our lives awesome, and one Dutch artist named Jalila Essaidi worked with Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands to create a swatch of bullet proof skin. Yep, bullet proof skin.

Even we were astonished to read this, but apparently it is true. The small piece of skin that they managed to create is nearly bullet proof. It has been prepared using spider silk and human skin cells and is able to withstand a bullet shot from .22 calibre Long Rifle and little more development will let it meet the requirement of a Type 1 bulletproof vest.

In order to prepare this bullet proof material, the scientists first engineered goats so that the milk contains proteins that are found in extra strong spider silk. The milk was then used to spun a bullet proof material. After this, a layer of real human skin was grown around the layer, which apparently took five weeks to get the final product. We’ve heard of spiders helping burn victims recover, but this is something that is seen for the first time.

“With this work I want to show that safety in its broadest sense is a relative concept, and hence the term bulletproof,” Essaidi said in a press release. “The work did stop some partially slowed bullets but not the one at full speed.”

In its present state, it is not able to stop a bullet from a .22 caliber rifle shot at a normal speed, which is actually the minimum standard in order to consider a vest as bulletproof vest. Until January 8th next year, the skin will be displayed at the National Natural History Museum Naturalis in Leiden, Netherlands. Imagine the potential which this material has got if it developed further.

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