Building Tomorrow's Soldier Today

FleaPlus writes "Wired reports on a glove developed by Stanford researchers Dennis Grahn and Craig Heller which combines a cooling system with a vacuum in order to chill blood vessels and drastically reduce fatigue. Besides the obvious military and athletics applications, the technology is also potentially useful for firefighters, stroke victims, and people with multiple sclerosis. The Wired article also describes a number of other human enhancement projects intended to advance battlefield technology. Examples include military exoskeletons, projects designed to increase cognition or decrease the need for sleep, and studies that may one day allow single soldiers to operate multiple aerial drones. Many of these were opposed by the President's Council on Bioethics."

Comments

Re:Solider?

[Larus]

Science and technology aside, this will sooner or later find commercial markets.

And why not? Human beings have made themselves to be more unhuman in every passing year. We have professional athletes whose exercise programs would be considered abnormal and pointless, (not including shaving eyebrows to achieve an iota of improvement in swim speed.) We have anti-aging pharmaceutical food and beverage offerings that cater to the Baby Boomers who felt entitled to look like 40-yos instead of 60. We have daily caffeine to boost our brains in the morning, no-dose to boost productivity in the evenings, Prozac to lift us when we're low, and even psychadelic drugs to boost creativity when we're dull. We design ergonomic chairs and keyboards while we sit in front of computers and in our cars for longer hours. We alter hormones and apply suntan lotions. We use AC's and heaters so that our habitats can include the most uncomfortable places on Earth. We give our children Baby Einstein so that they will be superkids and outcompete others when they grow up.

I'm not saying it's pointless for soldiers on the frontline to receive these booster-packs. They have a job to accomplish, and so do we. Maybe we're all trying to become Homo sapiens cyberneticus too. Maybe our environment self-selects.

Re:Great way to win the War on Terror on the Cheap

[GundamFan]

This is an excellent example of why we as a society need fiction (especially science fiction).

We have to explore or ethics as a culture very carefully before making leaps such as these, and fiction lets us do that.

Now to get more people to read worthwhile books...

The Glove

[daigu]

Even they were astounded at how well it seemed to work. Vinh Cao, their squat, barrel-chested lab technician, used to do almost 100 pull-ups every time he worked out. Then one day he cooled himself off between sets with an early prototype. The next round of pull-ups -- his 11th -- was as strong as his first. Within six weeks, Cao was doing 180 pull-ups a session. Six weeks after that, he went from 180 to more than 600...In trying to figure out why the Glove worked so well, its inventors ended up challenging conventional scientific wisdom on fatigue. Muscles don't wear out because they use up stored sugars, the researchers said. Instead, muscles tire because they get too hot, and sweating is just a backup cooling system for the lattices of blood vessels in the hands and feet. The Glove, in other words, overclocks the heat exchange system. "It's like giving a Honda the radiator of a Mack truck," Heller says. After four months of using it himself, Heller did 1,000 push-ups on his 60th birthday in April 2003.

Any suggestions on how to test this using common household items? Would a simple cooler of ice work?

Re:The Glove

[fredNonesuch]

The slight vacuum has to do with two things - getting the hand tissue to fill any air gaps between the heat exchanging glove so that you get maximum contact for heat transfer (better conduction). The second purpose is that blood vessels will also expand slightly thus increasing the rate of flow of blood through the tissue (convection). Both are important to heat transfer.

The problem that they found is that the temperature at which maximum effectiveness of heat transfer occurs varies by individual. If the hand gets too cold, blood vessels constrict and greatly reduce the effectiveness - as in the huskies feet.

That means that there needs to be some means of regulating the temperature of the water going into the glove and some means of measuring the temperature (and thus effective heat transfer) of the water coming out of the glove. Calibration means lowering the temperature slowly until you see a significant drop in water temperature change across the glove. A degree or so above that would max out heat transfer.

The description of using ice chips for a portable unit means one of two things - either the most effective water temp for heat transfer is close to freezing or it was the most efficient way to provide a heat sink was that rather than a heat pump or thermocouple. I suspect the latter given that you already have to have a water pump circulating the water.

The simplest arrangement I can think of requires throwing away portability. You'd need to have two buckets - one with mostly ice and some water in it and one with just water in it. The ice bucket sits at a somewhat higher level than the water bucket with a siphon tube leading down into the second bucket.

The second bucket is full of water and has a fully submersible aquarium heater in it that's pretty precise and fairly high powered - say 150 watts. It also has a submersible pump (power head) that has two outlets. The first just circulates water rapidly inside the bucket to maintain temperature uniformity. The other has a second tube attached that feeds back into the ice filled bucket.

Ideally, you want a second thermostat opening and closing a valve in this second tube. In reality, it's probably cheaper to use an adjustable clamp. This means the aquarium heater works harder when they are sitting there in the rest state and a lot slower when you're swishing your hands around in it.

Calibration in this case is a matter of lowering the thermostat on the aquarium heater bit by bit between sets until the recovery effect drops dramatically. Given that the environment is typically around 70 degrees, I'd say start at 65 degrees and go down from there.

too much sleep?

[rasputin465]

projects designed to increase cognition or decrease the need for sleep

Yeah, it's called 'meth', and Nazi soldiers used it while conducting Blitzkrieg. Not a new development.

Re:too much sleep?

[DrVomact]

Yeah, it's called 'meth', and Nazi soldiers used it while conducting Blitzkrieg. Not a new development.

My, that is a novel suggestion as to how the techniques of "Blitzkrieg" came into being. I suppose it should have been obvious me--it's well known that their soldiers are "fanatic" or "drug-crazed", while ours are "higly motivated".

Seriously, there's nothing new here. For example, benzedrine and other stimulants were routinely issued to U.S. Air Force pilots to keep them awake during WW II. In fact, the U.S. Air Force still issues amphetamines to its pilots and pressure them to take these "go pills". (For example, take a look at http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id= 1425252002 or http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/a pj/apj97/spr97/cornum.html or http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,57434,00. htmlhere.

It might be interesting to ask whether the pilots who were involved in the disturbingly frequent "friendly fire" incidents during our recent ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq were flying high in more than one sense. But nobody will.

Re:Possible civilian use

[Stormcrow309]

Actually, it reduces muscle fatigue by 'supercharging' the body's coolant system, also know as blood. You can do the same effect with much less efficiency by running cold water over the hands. We have been playing with the concept at work. I went from 15 pushups in 10 pushup sets to 55 pushups in 10 pushup sets with 2 minutes of hand cooling between sets. Yes, I am out of shape.

May be solving the wrong problem

[Animats]

True. That may be solving the wrong problem.

The problem they're working on with this isn't one the US has. The "superhuman abilities" thing is useful when assaulting hard, heavily defended, hard to access targets. But the US military is very good at assaulting hard targets.

What the US military is lousy at is fighting guerrilla and insurgent movements. Those are about intelligence, not firepower. The opposition tries to avoid offering any hard targets. They don't fight pitched battles. It's classic Maoist doctrine: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue." The US couldn't deal with that in Vietnam, and it can't deal with it in Iraq.

Re:Great way to win the War on Terror on the Cheap

[crashfrog]

We have to explore or ethics as a culture very carefully before making leaps such as these, and fiction lets us do that.

Oh, bullshit. Most of the ethical exploration you're referring to, particularly in Star Trek, consists of nothing more than reinforcing 19th-century moral structures applied to 20th-century situations (though allegory of 24th-century technologies.)

Homosexuals are pushing for equality in society, including rights of marriage? The message of Star trek is "cram those assholes back in the closet, where they belong. No gay people in our version of the future." People of different races want equal treatment before the law, and to be seen as individuals, not weirdos? The message of Star Trek is "You're your race. You're just a Klingon; we expect you to be violent. You're just a Ferengi, you'll never be anything but avaricious. You're just a Jew or a nigger. Only white people are normal and non-ethnic." Even the Prime Directive presents a viewpoint on developing cultures right out of 19th-century colonialism - "savages will be savages, and there's nothing we can do to help them."

Honestly it's always astounded me when people put things like Star Trek out there as some kind of ideal future of equality. What, just because every single series had one token black person on the bridge? When you really pay attention to the series you find that the attitudes are remarkably parochial and conservative. Nearly everyone in the five different series is a racist, and good luck trying to find a single gay character.

Re:From what I see on TV

[amper]

As an aside, I've come across your posts many times now, and I've been wondering why you chose your sig. I'm willing to concede that Kerry may have actually said such a thing. I'm also willing to bet that as a highly decorated veteran officer who actually served in Vietnam, that John Kerry knows quite a bit more about warfighting than George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or you and I.

Is your sig an attempt to mock John Kerry, or President Bush?

I happen to agree with Kerry's quote. We *do* need more troops in Iraq, if we have any intention of actually accomplishing anything positive there. Unfortunately, not only is this a rather unpopular stance, it's also true that a "surge" of only 21,000 or so more troops isn't going to do the job. What we need is to go back to the original recommendations of people like Gen. Eric Shinseki, and send an additional 500,000 or more troops. Not that this will ensure success, but it's the only chance we have to make this all work out, unless we're going to take the standpoint that the situation is unsalvageable, and try to work it out by paying reparations.

We may have had no moral authority to invade Iraq, but we sure as Hell have a moral responsibility now to clean up after our mistake, no matter the cost to the United States of America. The only real question is, do we even have the ability to do it anymore?

Re:Okay, this is a cheap shot

[c6gunner]

Conformity through anti-conformity or what have you. Leftists (I can't call them Liberals because that would mean free thinking people) are some of the most close minded, anti-freespeech people I have ever had an occasion to converse with.

And in a burst of irony, 2 out of 3 responders, and several mods, decide to prove you right. Ah well. I'm still with you. There's plenty of intolerance on the right, too, but it doesn't hold a candle to the sheer mindless hatred on the left.

Possible *profitable* civilian use

[Atario]

All seriousness aside...

I heard of this some time ago, in the context of increasing stamina of athletes (and it wasn't a glove then, but a mini-chamber). But it occurred to me -- as someone who has trouble losing fat -- that this energy-remover might be worn for extended periods to remove a lot of calories from one's core, thus prompting the body to produce more heat, thus using more energy reserves, which is to say, fat.

Sell this on the open market as "the fat-burning pod" or something at $125 a pop and watch the cash roll in...