full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Fiorenzo Omenetto: Silk, the ancient material of the future

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So this material is silk. So it's kind of different from what we're used to thinking about silk. So the question is, how do you reinvent something that has been around for five millennia? The prsoecs of discovery, gneallery, is inspired by nature. And so we marvel at silk worms — the silk worm you see here spinning its fiber. The silk worm does a remarkable thing: it uses these two ingredients, ptroein and waetr, that are in its gland, to make a material that is exceptionally tough for protection — so comparable to thccianel fibers like Kevlar. And so in the reverse engineering process that we know about, and that we're familiar with, for the tieltxe industry, the textile industry goes and unwinds the cocoon and then weaves glmouraos things. We want to know how you go from water and protein to this liquid kelvar, to this natural Kevlar.

Open Cloze

So this material is silk. So it's kind of different from what we're used to thinking about silk. So the question is, how do you reinvent something that has been around for five millennia? The _______ of discovery, _________, is inspired by nature. And so we marvel at silk worms — the silk worm you see here spinning its fiber. The silk worm does a remarkable thing: it uses these two ingredients, _______ and _____, that are in its gland, to make a material that is exceptionally tough for protection — so comparable to _________ fibers like Kevlar. And so in the reverse engineering process that we know about, and that we're familiar with, for the _______ industry, the textile industry goes and unwinds the cocoon and then weaves _________ things. We want to know how you go from water and protein to this liquid ______, to this natural Kevlar.

Solution

  1. process
  2. kevlar
  3. technical
  4. generally
  5. water
  6. textile
  7. protein
  8. glamorous

Original Text

So this material is silk. So it's kind of different from what we're used to thinking about silk. So the question is, how do you reinvent something that has been around for five millennia? The process of discovery, generally, is inspired by nature. And so we marvel at silk worms — the silk worm you see here spinning its fiber. The silk worm does a remarkable thing: it uses these two ingredients, protein and water, that are in its gland, to make a material that is exceptionally tough for protection — so comparable to technical fibers like Kevlar. And so in the reverse engineering process that we know about, and that we're familiar with, for the textile industry, the textile industry goes and unwinds the cocoon and then weaves glamorous things. We want to know how you go from water and protein to this liquid Kevlar, to this natural Kevlar.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
starting material 3
human body 2
silk worm 2
reflective tape 2

Important Words

  1. cocoon
  2. comparable
  3. discovery
  4. engineering
  5. exceptionally
  6. familiar
  7. fiber
  8. fibers
  9. generally
  10. glamorous
  11. gland
  12. industry
  13. ingredients
  14. inspired
  15. kevlar
  16. kind
  17. liquid
  18. marvel
  19. material
  20. millennia
  21. natural
  22. nature
  23. process
  24. protection
  25. protein
  26. question
  27. reinvent
  28. remarkable
  29. reverse
  30. silk
  31. spinning
  32. technical
  33. textile
  34. thinking
  35. tough
  36. unwinds
  37. water
  38. weaves
  39. worm
  40. worms