科學家研發蛛絲皮膚 人人都成蜘蛛俠

What started as a work of art and science fiction may become a medical miracle that benefits burn patients, aids bone regeneration and one day may even make us bulletproof.
　　在科技小說或藝術作品中可以治療燒傷病人，幫助骨頭痊癒甚至可以防彈的醫學奇蹟即將變爲現實。

Dutch artist Jalila Essa?di and cell biologist Abdoelwaheb El Ghalbzouri blended synthetic spider silk with human skin to produce a superstrong material that can stop a rifle bullet shot at half its regular speed.

荷蘭的藝術家加里拉·埃塞迪和細胞生物學家阿波德爾瓦赫比·高爾波澤瑞將蜘蛛絲和人類皮膚合成在一起，製作了一種具有超級人性的可以以恆速的一半組織步槍的射擊。

Time to move over Kevlar? Not quite yet, but the new weave could turn out to have various medical uses.

到了淘汰纖維B的時候麼？其實並不是，但是新的材料可以有更多的醫學用途。

Essa?di's original art work is a lab sample of skin tissue stored in a refrigerator and accompanied by a video showing a gunshot test on the material.

埃迪賽最初的工作原型是一片儲存在實驗室冰箱中的皮膚組織，並且還有非常詳細的以它爲材料進行的槍擊實驗的視頻說明。

The special skin will soon become part of Belgian art collector Geert Verbeke's unusual portfolio: he plans to graft part of the artist's creation into his arm later this year.

這特殊的皮膚很快就成爲比利時的收集家吉特·維比克的特殊收藏品。他計劃今年晚些時候，移植部分藝術家的創意到他的手臂中。

‘It connects nature, science and art. If I put the art that Jalila has made on my arm, then I will always have it with me,’ said Verbeke, who has a particular interest in marrying arts and life sciences.

“科學和藝術，他們都和自然相連。如果我能把加里拉所謂的藝術加入到我的手臂中，那麼它就會一直存在。”這位對結婚藝術和生命科學有着特殊興趣的維比克先生這樣說到。

However, such grafted skin is still far from being truly bulletproof.

但是，這樣嫁接的皮膚距離防彈這個目標還很遙遠。

El Ghalbzouri said that spider silk is three times stronger than Kevlar, which is used in bulletproof vests worn by the military and others in conflict zones. Since bulletproof vests are made from 33 layers of Kevlar, using more layers of spider silk could prove more effective in stopping a bullet, he said.

高爾波澤瑞說蜘蛛絲要比現在用於防彈背心的纖維B強韌三倍有餘。既然防彈背心是用33層纖維B做成的，那麼要是用更多層的蜘蛛絲製作防彈背心，那樣防彈的作用就會大大提高了。

He and Essa?di see more potential for the blended skin and silk when it comes to developing skin grafts for burn patients.

當他和埃塞迪看到了給燒傷患者嫁接皮膚時，他們看到了將人類皮膚和蜘蛛絲結合起來從而生產一種新品種的巨大潛力。

‘This skin is much stronger and tougher than regular skin ... you can also make much larger pieces of skin this way,’ the artist told Reuters. ‘The layers of spider silk embedded in the skin allow the cultivation of larger sheets of tissue which literally outgrow their petri dishes.’

“這樣的皮膚比之前的更有韌性，甚至你還可以做更多的皮膚”，這位藝術家告訴路透社。“將這層蜘蛛絲嵌入人體皮膚能夠培養更多的皮膚組織。”

‘Next to skin, spider silk could be a very good scaffold for bone regeneration, cartilage, tendons, ligaments,’ he told Reuters, while other applications for the silk alone include surgical stitches, thanks to its strength and elasticity, as well as parachutes and parachute cords.

“除了對於皮膚，蜘蛛絲對骨骼重生也很有幫助”，他告訴路透社，其他關於蜘蛛絲的用途還有外科縫合，因爲它很堅固又有彈性，也用於降落傘。