 the raising of silkworms. She's careful not to speak too loudly, and the television in the other room is kept at a low volume too. Silkworms, I'm told, don't like the sound of raised voices, or music, or the smell of perfume, tobacco, or menstruating women. In the first week of life they're so sensitive and fussy that only one expert in the village hatches them out on a bed in a room with carefully controlled temperature and humidity. I'm in the desert oasis of Khorizm in Uzbekistan.