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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (19814)	11/13/2002 7:39:06 AM
From: Richnorth	Respond to of 27744

Army uniforms that help tell friend from foe in the dark Scientists are working on attire that can help the wearer do this, protect him from chemical and biological weapons, and even heal injuries NEW YORK - These may be lean economic times, but there is brisk demand for scientists who work on military projects. OFF THE BATTLEFIELD Uses of photonic crystals: • Fashion mavens might leave the house in a turquoise outfit in the morning and reconfigure the same outfit to tangerine when they go out to dinner. • Optical communications systems might someday be woven into our clothing, making cell phones and hand-held devices obsolete. • The innards of computers might rely as much on optics as on electronics. One project is the US$50 million (S$88.4 million) contract the Defence Department gave earlier this year to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The goal is to build a sort of exoskeleton that, among other things, is supposed to give soldiers superhuman strength, protect them from biological and chemical weapons, and even help heal their injuries. One of the researchers on the project is MIT assistant professor Yoel Fink. Using, in part, technology he created, Prof Fink and his team aim to embroider the super-soldier fighting uniform with polymer threads that - by reflecting or absorbing different wavelengths of light selectively - would silently flash an optical bar code. That way, for example, troops wearing specially tuned night- vision goggles would be able to distinguish between foe and friend during a night firefight. The super-soldier project, officially known as the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, has special meaning for Prof Fink, who grew up in Israel and served in the army there. 'I spent three years of my life in the infantry,' said Prof Fink, who is now 36 years old. 'It absolutely hits close to home because I know how vulnerable infantry soldiers are.' If two recently issued patents are any indication though, his ambitions extend beyond the battlefield. Last month, he and several colleagues were granted a patent for a fibre that steers light beams efficiently over long distances. The technology is being developed by OmniGuide, a start-up that Prof Fink co-founded and which recently secured US$10 million in a second round of financing. In August, he received a more fundamental patent which broadly covers the use of certain polymers as photonic crystals - an innovation he hopes will one day revolutionise optics the way the semiconductor revolutionised electronics. Of his work, he said he 'wanted to do with photons what people have been doing for years with electrons - to manipulate the flow of light in materials'. Photons are the smallest known units of light, with both particle and wave properties. Photonic crystals allow for the manipulation of light. Prof Fink says the first application to come out of his research is likely to be a light-transmitting fibre for a highly secure military communications network for the military. --The New York Times