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Comment by Lxr | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what effects this process has on the organism. For instance what would happen if humans ate graphene?

The good news about silkworms is that they're not in it for the long haul anyway, so as long as there are no teratogenic effects, it's all ok.

While it's probably a negligible risk, we would breathe the dust from silk fibers if the stuff were produced in significant quantity.

We're already doing that; we produce nanoparticles of carbon from a number of industrial processes, most notably burning coal. IIRC there was an article on HN recently about finding some magnetic nanoparticles which had made their way into human brains.

Doesn't that make getting an MRI really really dangerous?

Actually IIRC the article described using MRI's to find those particles, but I don't exactly remember. Either way, no, they're just too small. What effect they have in the production of free radicals and the like though? Who knows yet.

... because they're boiled alive as soon as they finish their cocoons. But maybe you mean teratogenic effects on humans?

uh... can you expand on this? What do you mean they are boiled? (ill go google - but please explain)

EDIT: oh... no thanks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beondegi

Not that, boiling is a step to produce silk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk#Production_process

I think nanotubes are carcinogenic

Indeed, they are:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23751780

http://www.psr.org/environment-and-health/environmental-heal...

The mechanism is similar to that of asbestos.

Unless dissolved in olive oil, then it has lifespan extending properties. https://alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-vitality/report/fullerene...

Not to defend any unsubstantiated claims, but C60 is not exactly the same as a nanotube. There doesn't seem to be evidence that C60 is toxic/carcinogenic (though not necessarily solid evidence in the other direction either): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_impact_of_fullerenes#Bu...

C60 isn't toxic, in fact it is an anti-oxidant, a very strong one. Oxidative stress is sometimes desirable, though, for instance C60 is exceptional at neutralizing Nitric Oxide. You know what is one of NO's functions in the body? Erections.

After cessation, the anti-boner effects seem to disappear, though. Such a shame it even had that effect to begin with because it really made me feel more energetic and happier while allowing me to (consistently and basically within a day or two of starting to take it) do twice the reps during my workouts.

No that's C60 which is 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a geodesic dome. Carbon Nanotubes are completely different, they are long and stringy and get tangled up in cells and break them and can't be removed.

Interestingly, some groups are trying to use them as a delivery platform for cancer therapies [1], though I don't really understand how they'd compete with something biocompatible and tested like liposomes.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210734/

pure carbon is, counter-intuitively, carcinogenic.

Indeed, I naively assumed that being a carbon based organism, more carbon couldn't do much harm.

Breathing pure oxygen is also harmful.

Or drinking too much water.

The Adam Ruins Everything segment on this was great, it takes a large deal of water to poison yourself but somehow people manage to do it because of myths about hydration.

Everything is toxic in too large amount.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison

I was recently reading about the blood / kidney salt balance too. Same for pH. Interesting how our body spends time in a balancing act.

Carbon based expression is misleading as usual. Organic based life (i.e. based on carbon structure chemistry) is more accurate.

Cyanide is carbon based. Kills you quick. Aromatic hydrocarbons like benzene will kill you slower.

It's like the "all natural" misnomer. Coral snake venom is all natural, but I don't want any, thank you.

SO what? Most of the life on earth is still carbon-based, as in with carbons at the centre of all essential molecules in biology. What kills you is irrelevant to make that statement true or false.

Is force feeding graphene to silkworms unethical?

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