By mimicking how a spider spins silk at room temperature, an Oxford University venture has created a high performance, biodegradable textile that is 1,000 times more efficient than current methods for making man-made fabrics, which emit tons of carbon. Over the course of millions of years, spiders have evolved the ability to create one of the world's strongest and most adaptable materialssilk. The secret to a spider's ability to create silk lies within their spinnerets, a specialized organ that turns the liquid silk gel within the spider's abdomen into a solid thread. After years of research into this unique mechanism, Spintex has managed to mimic the spider's amazing ability: The company has created a process to spin textile fibers from a liquid gel, at room temperature, with water and biodegradable textile fibers as the only outputs. Last week, the nonprofit Biomimicry Institute awarded $100,000 to the English researchers, naming Spintex the winner of this year's Ray of Hope Prize, which honors the world's top nature-inspired startups. More than 50% of silk's environmental footprint lies in the raw material processing, which uses thousands of liters of water that must be boiled every day, so it's very energy intensive. Currently, there are no sustainable alternatives to traditional silk. "Spintex provides the only truly sustainable option for silk production that can produce bers with the quality, performance and luster of traditional silk," says the company website.