Earth & Sky

Nanotechnology for ‘smart’ soldier uniforms

"We're trying to design uniforms which might respond to the presence of a chemical or biological attack," says Paula Hammond.(Photo by Master Sgt. Johancharles Van Boers, DOD Photos)

Paula Hammond: Nanotechnology is not one single thing. It’s a number of different areas which examine both materials and physics on the nanometer-length scale.

That’s Paula Hammond on engineering materials at scales one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair. Hammond’s a professor in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She said there’s more to nanotechnology than just making springier golf clubs and tennis rackets.

Paula Hammond: We can also engineer materials that are extremely sensitive and can therefore detect something that might cause disease. We might be able to generate biomedical sensors that are extremely accurate.

Hammond and colleagues are developing “smart” uniforms for soldiers, clothes that respond to changes in light and heat, and can even seal themselves from a chemical or biological attack. She talked about this and more in a new Fred Friendly Seminars series. It’s called Nanotechnology: the Power of Small.

Paula Hammond: This same kind of technology could be applied in the ventilation systems of a subway, in which we manage or control ventilation by monitoring the air that the ventilation system is about to encounter.

You can watch the nanotech panel discussion on public television in 2008. Or visit powerofsmall.org.

Written by Jorge Salazar