Rainy Day & Silkworms

The rain has been relentless for the past few days in Sydney, and isn't forecast to stop for a sizeable chunk of the week. It's good in a way, because going from winter to summer in Italy next week will be made even lovelier after coming from such awful weather, but it's also very frustrating because I had about 50 different outfits to post here before I left! I have been wanting some kitty shoes for such a long time now, though I'm glad I held out for these ones because they actually fit me (unlike all the pairs I tried to squeeze my feet into while I was in Tokyo earlier this year). These ones are awesome - they are both suede and creeper-style with a slight heel, and, well, they have cat faces on them. And anything with a cat face is basically instantly fantastic. dress - c/o Sheinside belt - Vintage cardigan - Forever 21 (old) socks - c/o OASAP hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - c/o Sammydress I always wanted to design my own wedding dress, if I were to one day get married. I always thought that I'd just design the structure of the dress, but now that I'm going into molecular biology, maybe I'll be able to help make the fabric too - and own the geekiest dress ever. This dress was made out of silk from transgenic silkworms, who can produce glowing silk. Image source These glowing silkworms are created by inserting a sequence of DNA that encodes a glowing fluorescent protein into the same region of the DNA that encode the instructions for making silk proteins. So the silkworms are exactly the same as ordinary silkworms, and still make silk in the same way, except that their silk comes out glowing. The medical applications of silk are vast, and it is now commonly used in medicine and surgery. Because the body's immune system doesn't reject silk, it can be used to make artificial arteries and other tissues. But being able to work with a glowing material, that is clearly distinguishable from human flesh, could potentially make things are lot easier for surgeons! Although making a glowing dress out of the glowing silk maybe isn't as necessary an advance as making glowing arteries, it was a good way to draw attention to the research, and well, it's also pretty damn cool. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr