The inspiration for the book ‘Silk: Exploring Nature’s Superfibre’ emanated from a series of lectures presented in Rivera, Uruguay, in June-July 2018. It was right in the middle of World Cup fever, which was (considering Rivera lies on the border of Brazil) is immensely exciting, tense, and heart-breaking for visitors and locals alike. The lectures themselves covered all things silk- from biological comparisons among the animals that use it, to its social impacts, to the physics and chemistry of silk, particularly spider silk, to silk in biotechnology (including its genetic engineering, silk-based technologies, and future silk products).
In the spirit of those Lectures and to acknowledge the efforts of those at the Universidad de la República for making them possible, I have decided to title the book’s blog post “The Uruguay Lectures.” I will go through the subject matter of the book/Uruguay Lectures weekly (that’s the plan anyway) to provide previews and snippets of each section of the book. The blog nevertheless may not always exactly reflect the content of the book, expect me or my fellow bloggers to go out on tangents. All going well, I intend to bring in subject experts or valued contributors on each blog subject. I’d even love to here from readers. Let’s commence.
