Science’s pets very often become culture’s monsters. A metamorphosis occurs somewhere between the laboratory and the mass media. Scientists manipulate the invisible world while the media manipulates how we see science.
Nexia Biotechnologies, a Canadian Corporation, is cloning goats that have been genetically engineered for the manufacture of spider silk, reported to be the world’s strongest material. Potential uses include: bulletproof body armor, surgical suture material, and biodegradable fishing line. Nexia has named it BioSteel and they produce it in goat’s milk.
In a 2002 interview with ABC news Nexia President and CEO Jeffery Turner claimed that they had cloned fifty of these altered goats so far and will have thousands of them within the next several years.
So, is Spider-Goat a monster or a super hero? The story of such a creature plays like a B-movie as it is disseminated through the media. It has been linked to fashion, capitalism, health, safety, genetically altered foods, cancer, and of course, animal rights. It is an illustration of the line between mimicking nature and manipulating nature.