New Biological Technologies Will Grant Troops Super Powers: Tomorrow’s troops may look more like the superheroes from the Avengers comic books than G.I. Joes. As medical and biotechnology advances, the military’s research organizations are putting more emphasis on creating super soldiers with improved performance, strength and the ability to better survive serious injury.
Everything from Wolverine’s self-healing powers to Iron Man’s suit is within the realm of possibility.
Leading the charge is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which launched its biological technologies office in April. One goal is “cultivating new discoveries that help maintain peak warfighter abilities and restoring those abilities as quickly and fully as possible when they are degraded,” a DARPA news release stated.
Programs include high-tech, robotic prosthetics and a device that can be implanted in a soldier’s brain to help restore memories lost after an injury. DARPA is also developing a putty-like material that can be packed in and around compound fractures, allowing doctors to eschew setting the injury with plates, rods and screws. The putty would harden to a bone-like structure, enabling normal, load-bearing use of the limb within days.
