Noah Snyder pulled out a glass terrarium where dozens of silkworms crawled about, gnawing on white mulberry leaves peppered with caterpillar droppings.

He set it on the green felt of a pool table. Then he plopped down a bowl of their silk cocoons, and then a container full of small, black balls: silkworm droppings, which smell like tea leaves and can, in fact, be brewed. (Mr. Snyder said it makes a fantastic “mellow, mulberry” beverage.)

The silkworms, Mr. Snyder and his team at BioInterphase Materials are the new tenants of the now defunct Troy Hill firehouse.

The bioengineering company is currently studying sericulture, the production of silk — trying to figure out if silk can become a “precursor” to advanced materials, such as fiber composites reinforced with silk.

“Our mission is t

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