The goal of ISN to develop tiny machines that are the size of molecules to give U.S. military personnel an edge on the battlefield. “This is an exciting day for the ISN because we’re doing so much more than dedicating a new facility,” said Professor Ned Thomas, director of ISN. “We’re really celebrating the coming-together of an outstanding community of researchers dedicated to improving the survivability of the brave soldiers who put themselves in harm’s way to defend our country.”
Some of the research that was on display at the ISN opening ceremony event included a new technique for combining nanoscale coatings to provide both water resistance and microbe-killing power for fabrics; fluids that stiffen when exposed to a magnet for use as a lightweight body armor as thin as paper but as strong as steel, replacing current 40-pound flak jackets that troops now wear; and polymers that open and shut like accordions when exposed to an electric field for use as automatic tourniquets or artificial muscles. This latter material, called exomuscle, can contract with 10 times the power of human muscle. It could possibly be put in gloves, uniforms and boots to give soldiers superhuman strength to leap over high walls…or even tall buildings in a single bound.
“There is a lot of nanotechnology research being done around the country, but nothing as concentrated as this new facility,” said A. Michael Andrews. He’s the chief scientist for the Army’s Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, and it’s his job to make sure American soldiers have the technology needed to win future wars – and that means thinking not big, but small.