Proof Paul Allen doesn't have a time machine... "Under the Oxford Biomaterials wing, Vollrath's team has another project that makes meniscal implants by which they dissolve the silk in lithium bromide ('a really nasty chemical, the only thing that will touch it') and then firm it up. The result is incredibly strong and integrates much better potentially with the human body than any plastic. These meniscal products are currently in animal trials, Vollrath says, and, given favourable outcomes, could be in humans in a year or two. In the same way, they are working on hernia meshes and bone-like structures and investigating ways in which silks can be used as a targeted carrier for drugs in the body, 'tuned to slow release over weeks or months or years'."