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[Ampersand]

Goat/Spider hybrids are actually making the spider silk manufacture process much easier.

[G-Flex]

Not quite what a "hybrid" is, but sure, we'll go with that.

[Enzo]

Approaches being tried include deriving fiber from the milk of transgenic goats with an extra spider-silk gene...

The reason research is being done on it now is because they genetically modified goats to produce spider silk enzymes in their milk, making it harvestable en masse.

Spider-Goat?

Goat/Spider hybrids are actually making the spider silk manufacture process much easier.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Ampersand]

I don't pay enough attention. I must have read every post except the ones mentioning goats. In any case, I saw a video somewhere of spidersilk being pulled from a machine after being synthesized from goats milk. Pretty awesome when you think about it.

[LegoLord]

Did you know there are tropical spiders that form communal webs capable of catching birds?  I was thinking those might be good for spider silk production (DF & real life).

[ScreamingDoom]

Other fun facts about spiders:

Spiders exist on every landmass on earth except Antarctica (yes, there are arctic spiders).

Some species of spiders have been found in laboratory tests to be able to reason their way towards a goal. At a cognitive level about equal to the average mouse.

Jumping spiders have extremely acute vision; they can see just as well as humans can.

There are over 40,000 known species of spiders on the planet.

The sydney funnel-web spider (native to Australia) has a venom which is only deadly to its typical prey and primates. Other mammals will just get a painful bite, but if the funnel-web bites a human, you have 40 minutes to get anti-venom or you will die painfully.

Pleasant dreams!

[G-Flex]

At a cognitive level about equal to the average mouse.

Jumping spiders have extremely acute vision; they can see just as well as humans can.

That first bit seems kind of dubious; do you have a source on that?

The second seems oversimplified, if anything. Spider eyes are so different from human eyes that a direct comparison doesn't make much sense.

[Porpoisepower]

As someone who enjoys making/dressing up in armor, and recreating Medieval combat (Active SCA member)  let me offer some insight on Armor construction.

Woven Silk/Adamantium would probably be able to protect from being skewered or cut in half. You will still end up with your head caved in, from a solid blow to the head.  Even if your attacker is using a sword a good blow to your abdomen, can break a rib, rupture your kidneys, and all other sorts of fun stuff. Solution? 

First off you'll need some good rigid steel in over your sensitive bits. (artifact steel cod pieces anyone?)
In addition to protecting with stiffness, being very heavy is important to absorbing shocks (in the SCA, helms need to be steel, as titanium, although stronger isn't heavy enough to protect against concussions).

You also need padding, layering closed and opencell materials, helps cut down on energy transfers through the materials. The energy of a significant hit can still bruise(or worse) internal organs, even if you have plenty of steel between your fleshy bits and your foes great maul.

[Rysith]

Jumping spiders have extremely acute vision; they can see just as well as humans can.

The second seems oversimplified, if anything. Spider eyes are so different from human eyes that a direct comparison doesn't make much sense.

You can still compare focal ranges, color, sensitivity, etc., and jumping spiders have really good eyes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On the reasoning, I'm not that surprised. Predators in general benefit from being able to reason and move towards long-term goals.

[LegoLord]

Which is why PETA is so horribly wrong about humans.

[G-Flex]

As someone who enjoys making/dressing up in armor, and recreating Medieval combat (Active SCA member)  let me offer some insight on Armor construction.

Woven Silk/Adamantium would probably be able to protect from being skewered or cut in half.

Why? Woven materials, like kevlar, are notoriously BAD at that sort of thing.

The problem is that the armor is made out of strands, each of which can very easily be cut by the weapon. This means it provides very little protection against, say, being stabbed, because there's a continuous force being applied (since the weapon is actually being held and force applied by the user), and the knife simply cuts through. Now if you THROW a knife at someone, that's another story.

The main point here is that these materials are good for distributing a given amount of kinetic energy, like say in a bullet, across a wider impact area. They are NOT going to stop you from getting stabbed.

[Derakon]

Woven adamantium would have more in common with maille than with plate armor. Maille is good at stopping cutting edges but bad at stopping kinetic energy. Hence, good at dealing with cuts. You know how Frodo got hit by a spear in Moria and his mithril vest stopped him from dying, but he ended up with a huge bruise? Same principle.

Whether or not that'd work with silk is a different question entirely.

[Neonivek]

You know how Frodo got hit by a spear in Moria and his mithril vest stopped him from dying, but he ended up with a huge bruise?

That made so little sense especially since mithril isn't THAT strong in Lord of the Rings by description alone. It was probably also magical somehow (Speaking of the Chainshirt Frodo wore)...

Well unless there was very little force put into the spear swung by the Ogre/Troll/Whatevera

[Footkerchief]

In case anyone's interested, Toady was originally considering calling adamantine mithril.  DF seems to have been very much a Moria simulator in the early days.

[Draco18s]

Which is why PETA is so horribly wrong about humans.

PETA is wrong about everything.
1) Fish are now SEAKITTENS.
2) Homeless animals are put in animal shelters, then if not adopted in 2 weeks are put to death.  Using a method banned from being used on criminals subject to the death penalty due to being "cruel and unusual punishment."

You know how Frodo got hit by a spear in Moria and his mithril vest stopped him from dying, but he ended up with a huge bruise? Same principle.

He was wounded (bruised) due to the force of the spear being converted from "piercing type" damage to "bludgeon type" damage.  It was only chainmail he was wearing, that's pretty bendy.