Microbially produced fibers: Stronger than steel, tougher than Kevlar

Spider-silk is in a similar category as graphene, whereby it can do everything but leave the lab.

It's working pretty well for spiders!

And clothing!

Watched an interesting "How It's Made" recently on silk production (okay, worms not spiders). Amazing 5,000yo "technology".

Of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hf9yN-oBV4

"I Grew Real Spider Silk Using Yeast"

This is very exciting. Synthetic biology is a promising path towards Dressler-type nanotechnology. I'm quite optimistic about this, but scaling things up is always difficult.

Space elevators here we come!

(Reference to a Sci-Fi novel called "The Fountains of Paradise"- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountains_of_Paradise)

Hrm. Simple minded being like me thought of making something like the BA-330 inflatable habitat study from Bigelow Aerospace out of it. For advanced 'Tin-Canning' in orbit, little steps and all that, you know? :-)