Tucked away at the end of Boston Avenue on the campus of Tufts University, USA, is a multi­purpose lab focused on a remarkable material: silk. The aptly named Silklab, which is typically bustling with 30 or so people tackling a variety of tasks, is a series of specialized rooms supporting diverse research projects. There’s a fabrication space, a studio for silkworm rearing, a room for fiber arts like knitting and weaving, a silkworm cocoon processing lab, an optics lab, a state-of-the-art imaging facility, and even a room full of orchids and other plants, just to name a few.