Humans Have Found the Keys to Mother Nature's R&D Lab

The cover of National Geographic’s March issue featured a tractor tire dangling from a thread. Not metaphorically, but literally, because the thread is spider silk - five times stronger than steel but produced by genetically engineered silkworms. As National Geographic put it, this “supersilk” is “poised to upgrade far more than our clothing.” They’re right, but the real story is much bigger.

The next wave of economic impacts from the biotech revolution’s isn’t going to come from medicine, but rather the $6 trillion global chemical industry. Tools built to fight disease turn out to be even more powerful when they’re aimed at manufacturing.