Extra Credit Bioethics Reading/Discussion 

           The technology that I researched is a jacket that North Face and a Japanese  named Spiber has created which is supposed to be made out of biotech spider silk. The jacket has been named the “moon parka’’ - a coat woven out of synthetic spider silk. This jacket seems really smart and cool but there can be a down side to a synthetic spider silk jacket. The biggest problem would be the fact that producing spider silk on an industrial level is not very efficient. You cannot build a factory that will produce spider silk.  Then there are the upsides - the spider silk the stretchiest and strongest natural material - great for sports. To make a second point, most sports wear is made out of polymer or some synthetic material. These are made in factories that require petroleum and pollute the earth. Whereas spider silk is produced in greenhouses where the spiders would be stored. Long story short this moon parka is environmentally friendly. But like I mentioned before the jacket would take a long time to make unless you has thousands upon thousands of greenhouses filled with spiders, so North Face and Spiber have come up with a solution to this problem. The spider protein which is called fibroin is generated by microbes. Spiber and North Face have isolated the gene responsible for making the protein and introduced it to bioengineered bacteria, meaning they churned it out as they grow. The protein collected is then made into to artificial silk. I like this idea and I think it could benefit many people and the earth. They have also found the solution to a problem and will soon start to produce and sell these jackets. I believe that the jacket would be great item to own, but a downside could be the fact the the selling price could be high and therefore not many people will be able to afford it.

Extra Website Citing’s:

Rhodes, Margaret. "The North Face’s ‘Moon Parka’ Is Spun From Faux Spider Silk." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2016. <http://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-spun-from-faux-spider-silk/>.

Fischer, David. "The North Face's Moon Parka Is Made With Synthetic Spider Silk |       Highsnobiety." Highsnobiety. N.p., 23 Nov. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2016. <http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/11/23/the-north-faces-moon-parka-is-made-with-synthetic-spider-silk/>.