Future Body Armor Has Lots of Flexibility


Future Body Armor Has Lots of Flexibility

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Future Body Armor Has Lots of Flexibility

In this week's Cybershake, we look at what scientists are cooking up to protect future combat soldiers. Plus, we note a new Web site that has some in a titter, but leaves Google searching for justice.To get more news about best bullet proof vest, you can visit bulletproofboxs.com official website.

Better Body Armor

Body armor — more colloquially and incorrectly known as "bulletproof vests" — have helped saved countless lives of U.S. soldiers serving in dangerous places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. But they aren't without faults.

Although typically made of lightweight cloth such as Kevlar, body armor is still bulky and stiff. That can make it difficult to wear in hot climates such as Iraq. Moreover, the stiffness of the armor can't be applied everywhere on the soldier's body, otherwise they would be nearly as inflexible as a knight from King Arthur's time.

But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army have been working on all kinds of far-out future fighting gear — including a a uniform that with a flick of a switch can turn into light, flexible armor.Mechanical engineer Gareth McKinley at MIT says it involves the use of an oily fluid full of very tiny iron particles. Using a magnet, the particles in that liquid can be forced to "line up," forming a stiff solid in a fraction of a second.

"When we apply a magnetic field, then the stiffness of that fabric changes by a factor of about 50," says McKinley. "It's very stiff. I mean, I have to push quite hard to be able to drive a probe through it."

Turn off that magnetic force and it's back to liquid. "We can keep applying a magnetic field, turning off a magnetic field and the material will keep going backwards and forwards, from liquid-like to solid-like and back again," he says.

Used in future uniforms, the magnets would be replaced with electrical currents that soldiers could turn on and off. Or, eventually, the cloth may become smart enough to react on its own, changing from flexible to bullet-resistant as needed.Google is one of the most popular online search engines in use. It seems to find Web pages no matter if you're looking for "aardvarks" or "zygotes." But one person in particular says the Web's choice search engine can't seem to find one thing in particular: A funny bone.

 

"Part of what we are making fun of is the prevalence of pornography on the Internet," says the former Internet executive, who refused to give his last name. "Google is profiting handsomely from the pornography business."

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