NEWS OF THE WEEK MATERIALS
SCIENCE
FUTURISTIC FORCE MIT aims to outfit combat troops with integrated nanoscience capabilities
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HE ARMY HAS AWARDED MAS-
sachusetts Institute of Technology $50 million to create the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Over the next five years, ISN scientists will create lightweight molecu lar materials to equip soldiers with uniforms and gear that can heal them, shield them, and protect them against such threats as chemical and biolog ical warfare. ISN will be staffed by up to 150 people, including 35 MIT pro fessors from nine departments in the Schools of Engineering, Sci ence, and Architecture & Plan ning. Using nanoscale science, re searchers will focus on six key military capabilities: threat de tection, threat neutralization (such as bulletproof clothing),
concealment, enhanced human performance, real-time auto mated medical treatment, and weight-load reduction of a fully equipped soldier from as much as 145 lb to about 45 lb. These themes will be ad dressed by seven research teams: energy-absorbing materials, me chanically active materials for de vices and exoskeletons, detec tions and signature management, biomaterials and nanodevices for soldier medical technology, process systems for manufacture and processing of materials, mod eling and simulation, and systems integration. Specific ideas researchers want to develop include a uniform that is nearly invisible, soft clothing that can become arigidcast when a soldier breaks a leg, and chain
BREAKUP
Giant Chunk Of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses
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Rhode Island-sized piece of ice shelf has shattered and separated very rapidly from the Antarctic Peninsula, forming a plume of thousands of ice bergs. Recent satellite images analyzed at the University of Colorado, Boulder, show that 1,250 sq miles of the Larsen Β ice shelf disintegrated over a 35-day period beginning on Jan. 31. This is the largest breakup event of the past 30 January 31 years, says Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow & Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. According to studies of ice flow and sediment thickness beneath the ice shelf, the Larsen Β ice shelf seems to have existed for at least 400 years. Scientists attribute the breakup to strong regional cli mate warming. Over the past five decades, the average temperature of the Antarctic Peninsula has risen 2.5 °C, or 4.5 °F. Summer temperatures on the peninsula are close to freezing, and pools of meltwater form on the ice shelves, Scambos says. The water fills small cracks in the ice and exerts positive pressure on the crack tips, extend ing them downward.—BETTE HILEMAN March 7
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mail made of lightweight molec ular materials. "Our mandate is to deliver for the soldier," says Timothy M . Swager, a professor of chemistry and associate director of ISN. He says ISN's multidisciplinary re search teams will take "an inte grated view of how to create uni forms of the future." Industry partners for ISN, in cluding DuPont and Raytheon, will kick in another $40 million in funding for facilities and equip ment. Industry researchers will also participate along with Army specialists as well as physicians from Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston's Brigham & Women's Hospital. "We made the decision very early on to work with M I T on its proposal," says Wayne Marsh, a DuPont research manager. H e says that M I T s concept of bring ing in "founding partners" from industry prompted DuPont to share some of its intellectual property with M I T researchers. "We gave them some inputs on technology we knew about." As ISN develops, Marsh says, there will be a constant flow of DuPont experts to the institute to share ideas and expertise. A number of different chemi cal technologies will be investi gated, says Paula T. Hammond, associate professor of chemical engineering at M I T . She says nanoscience insights will be used to create uniforms that can de tect threats from chemical or bi ological weapons, hide the in frared signal from a soldier's body, and change colors or layers of col ors as needed. "We want to inte grate all those abilities into one uniform," Hammond says. At a news conference, ISN Di rector Ned Thomas said, "Imag ine the psychological impact up on a foe when encountering squads of seemingly invincible warriors protected by armor and endowed with superhuman ca pabilities, such as the ability to leap over 20-foot walls."—WIL LIAM SCHULZ HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
