It'll be very interesting to see how efforts to create "biological reactors" for replicas of natural fibers progresses. Thus far, there have been a number of successful attempts at synthetic replicas of natural fibers. These successes have been spawned from chemical vs biological approaches. For example, rayon[1] was one of the first attempts at a synthetic silk, with nylon appearing just a few decades later[2], and eventually a number of other synthetic fibers. While there have been undeniable commercial successes, all of the pretenders remain worlds worlds apart from the look, feel, and even function of natural silk.<p>Likewise, I've heard occasional reports of teams working on synthetic spider silk[3]. That I've heard, none of these have developed into viable products much less replicated the properties of the original fiber.<p>Artifacts like this fabric woven from golden orb spider silk[4] remind me of tales of early plastic artifacts being collected and valued as rare treasures (which they were). Now plastics are absolutely ubiquitous. At what point will we create synthetic fibers that fully replicate or even surpass natural fibers? Interestingly, while a "plastic treasure" seems like a joke today, I expect that golden spider silk cloth will remain an impressive object both for its history and its amazing character as a physical object.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk#Attempts_at_producing_synthetic_spider_silk" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk#Attempts_at_produc...</a><p>[4] <a href="http://www.wired.com/2009/09/spider-silk" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/2009/09/spider-silk</a>