Flesh-and-blood soldiers could become the weakest link in the military chain, according to Darpa, the Pentagon's way-out research division. The solution? Stop the bleeding. Soldiers die if they lose too much blood. But currently battlefield medics can't do enough to stanch the flow from some gaping wounds, and synthetic blood substitutes don't make up for the loss.
One approach is being studied by the agency's Surviving Blood Loss project. When marine mammals like whales and seals dive deep, they let sections of their bodies go cold, cutting their metabolic rates dramatically. Darpa hopes that drugs or tech might allow soldiers to pull off the same trick - the agency's goal is to enable a rat to survive more than six hours after 60 percent of its blood has been drained.
Even Darpa managers admit it's far-fetched. Plan B: minimize bloodshed at the source, including spurting arteries. The Deep-Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation project, which aims to build on the work of researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere, uses focused, intense sonic blasts to heat the damaged cells. "Focused ultrasound allows a noninvasive method of cauterizing" - without fire or a laser -ésay the researchers. Darpa's looking for a portable emitter for combat that doesn't need an expert operator. That military chain's getting tougher.
- Noah Shachtman
credit: John MacNeill
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