<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.

Hmm-m...

More from nanotech than sci-fi:
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.
(Source: MIT given $50m to equip troops)

The Solar system suddenly looks a little more inviting!
:^)

"Nanotechnology will reverse the harm done by the industrial revolution."



[ ... ]

Imagine being able to cure cancer by drinking a medicine stirred into your favorite fruit juice. Imagine a supercomputer no bigger than a human cell. Imagine a four-person, surface-to-orbit spacecraft no larger or more expensive than the family car. These are just a few products expected from Nanotechnology.

[ ... ]

How about self assembling consumer goods made in your own garage from atoms pumped out of the atmosphere. Space travel safe, inexpensive, and accessible to all. Repave road surfaces with high efficiency self-assembling solar cells and quadruple the earth's energy availability. How about the end of famine and starvation with self-assembling automatic green houses allowing most of today's farmland to be returned to its' natural state. Ultimately, with atomic precision, food could be synthesized from raw atoms in the same nano universal assembler that just made a new pair of shoes. It's all a matter of software.




(Source: What is Nanotechnology?)

“Nanotechnology is Ultra-Green by Technical Definition.”
(Source: The Nanotechnology Ecology)

Smart Materials
(Extraordinary example: Utility Fog)



If you're one of the few million or so in the U.S. who use nail polish, imagine applying a clear liquid to your nails that changes color on some, or all of the surface, at your verbal command! Or maybe lay your hand on the fabric of your outfit and verbally command the liquid to search the array of complimentary colors until one suits your fancy. By rearranging surface atoms in appropriate patterns, the smart material will utilize the same light diffraction technique as butterfly wings to produce color.

No more broken nails! The smart coating also infiltrates the nail with a diamond lattice, effectively creating a composite at a strength physically safe for the tips of one's nails. If a nail should be damaged in any way, the coating automatically makes repairs.

Cosmetics is one of many multi-billion dollar industries that will benefit from a new class of coating called "Smart Materials". This smart coating will certainly cross genders because of some utilitarian properties unrelated to fashion. The proposed class of smart coatings, though extremely thin, contain a grab bag of nano-structural composites. Laced with nano-computers, their extraordinary powers offer usages yet to be imagined. Like with all smart materials, conversion of the polish to a flat screen color monitor or video phone is a snap. A fingernail may be a desirable place to locate your personal computer interface. An environmental monitor could be included to warn of high carbon dioxide concentration or radiation. One's physiological status could be constantly monitored. All of these functions could run on solar power generated in normal lighting conditions.

Smart Materials will undoubtedly be popular and find their way into many amazing applications.




(Source: Smart and Super Materials)

Much of the above is all from NanoTechnology Magazine.

And it’s about time!

Thanks for posting, Phil,
Dan