Phan Thi Thuan's family have been making silk for generations, growing and harvesting the threads from silkworms themselves to create luxury garments. But making lotus silk is different.

We begin with these wiggly little silkworms in Nam Cao, Vietnam. They're responsible for spinning each of these tiny cocoons. Just one of them can hold almost 1,000 feet of silk. Here ...

From these eggs will hatch tiny silkworms, caterpillars of the domesticated silk moth Bombyx mori, which will then set to chomping down on mulberry leaves and preparing themselves for the demanding ...

This was because of the material: mulberry silk, which derives its name from the silkworm’s diet of mulberry-tree leaves. It’s also grade-A silk, meaning it has long strands that are naturally ...

However, learning how to wash silk properly can be simpler than you might expect. This delicate material, derived from ...

The fibroin promoter in particular is very strong. "Silkworms can produce 400 mg of silk protein per animal and may be used as an insect factory for the production of many useful proteins," says Mori.

as the silk industries in France and Italy had been hit by an epidemic of silkworm disease. At one point, Japan was the world's biggest exporter. On this episode of Journeys in Japan, Sheila ...

the silk gland, and protein metabolism to better understand the material. Based on genomic studies of the domesticated silkworm, they have adopted transgenic technology for genetic manipulation ...