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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/073/nation/MIT_given_50m_to_equip_troops+.shtml Boston Globe March 14, 2002 MIT given $50m to equip troops By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff, 3/14/2002 The Army yesterday chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design futuristic combat gear for US soldiers, announcing a new $50 million research center that aims to take ''a quantum leap'' in technology and will become the largest military-funded project on the Cambridge campus. The center plans to marry engineering, medicine, chemistry, and other fields to design a battle suit that sounds like something out of science fiction: It would not only protect soldiers from bullets, but also track their location and physical condition. For the wounded, it would automatically administer medicines, turn from soft fabric into a cast or tourniquet, and transmit vital signs to distant medics. It might change color on command, or even manipulate light to make soldiers virtually invisible. Although much of this technology is years away, the Pentagon chose MIT because it considers the school a leader in nanotechnology, the molecular-scale engineering needed to create such equipment. The Pentagon will spread its $50 million in funding over five years. Defense companies including Raytheon and Dupont will contribute almost that much, bringing the total to nearly $100 million. For the Department of Defense, such high-tech gear is crucial to its vision of flexible, self-sufficient forces that could be quickly inserted into conflicts in rugged and unpredictable places such as Afghanistan. MIT officials called the project part of the continuing ''national service'' of a university that has long worked with the military to develop technology from radar to missile-guidance systems. The university received $60 million in defense research funding last year for its main campus alone, not counting Lincoln Labs, a Pentagon-funded facility in Lexington. At the same time, university officials were eager to portray the research as more than purely military. MIT provost Robert Brown said the program would set the agenda for the field of nanotechnology, the design of machines and structures so small they might consist of just a few atoms. He said the center's hoped-for nanotechnology inventions - from fabrics to sensors - could also be used in medical products for the public, since none of the research will be classified. Doctors from two local hospitals, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's, will be involved in the project, which scientists said would benefit emergency personnel who respond to terrorist attacks and other disasters. The scientists who made yesterday's announcement were visibly excited to be working on a project straight from a sci-fi fan's imagination - more than one mentioned the movie ''Predator'' - and some even envisioned boots that would help a soldier jump 20 feet in the air. ''Maybe six feet,'' conceded Edwin Thomas, a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT who will direct the work of 150 researchers at the new lab, called the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology. Thomas said the aim of the research was mainly defensive, to protect the lives of soldiers, adding that the lab would not be involved in designing weapons. Yet specialists say it can be hard to draw the line between defensive and offensive gear, since soldiers who are less vulnerable and carry less gear will be able to inflict more damage on their enemies. ''Imagine the psychological impact upon a foe when encountering squads of seemingly invincible warriors protected by armor and endowed with superhuman capabilities,'' MIT's publicity materials said. Five researchers on the project will come from the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, a research consortium whose members include Mass. General and the Brigham. CIMIT already has defense funding to work on technology for treating trauma patients. Dr. Reuben Mezrich, a radiologist at Mass. General and an electrical engineer, will work on sensors that could measure a soldier's sweat and transmit his condition to a medic even before he is pulled from the battlefield. He said he has no problem working with the military, particularly on technology that could eventually be applied to patients everywhere. Thomas said it may take the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology 20 years to come up with all the features it envisions. But by building on work already done, he hopes to produce some useful innovations within five years. The ideas include: Fabric that can change from soft to hard to create a pop-up barrier for soldiers to hide behind, or turn a sleeve into a splint. The fabric's microscopic fibers would be filled with a liquid that contains magnetic particles, which would line up in sticks when an electric field was flipped on, turning the liquid into a solid. Poison sensors perhaps based on the work of MIT scientist Linda Griffith, who put liver cells on a computer chip to detect toxins, and antidotes that the suit could automatically release. Materials that can change color in response to an electric field, or can measure the light from the soldier's surroundings and mimic it, so that the soldier blends into the background. Technology that would allow the suit to save water from a soldier's body and recycle it, reducing the amount of water that would have to be carried. Sensors that will tell commanders where every soldier is and what his or her vital signs are - and could allow doctors to perform medical triage on soldiers they can't see. Making this all work requires advances in two other areas: wireless networking, to transmit and keep track of data, and lightweight, efficient power sources to run all the devices. That work will be done at other laboratories. ''There's no point if the suit weighs 400 pounds and needs a 55-kilowatt generator to run,'' Thomas said. Some scientists have expressed concern that by manipulating matter on the atomic level, nanotechnology could lead to unforeseen effects on the environment, and raised questions about whether there should be limits on its use to change human physiology, said Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst with the Federation of American Scientists. He added that he did not necessarily share those concerns, but said that as in any new field, limits should be set on how far nanotechnology should go; the goals should be publicly discussed and military funding should be accompanied by public oversight. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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