Article: Hearing to Decide Role of Chatham, Mass., Scientist in Spider-Silk Scam.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 14 -- Motivated by a potential gold mine of profits, scientists have tried and failed for decades to duplicate the complex genetic coding of spider silk in order to reproduce one of the world's strongest, softest, and most flexible substances.

So when San Francisco venture capitalist Nigel Fleming saw the laboratory notes of a Chatham scientist who said he had succeeded, Fleming was ecstatic. He quit his job, advanced $100,000 of his own money to complete research, and signed on as chief executive of a new company to rush spider silk into commercial production. Over the next three years, he turned over $2.7 ...

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