You know what sucks most about our favorite superheroes? They don’t exist. We live in a world without any real superheroes! The thought is enough to bring a tear to this grizzled old comic book fan’s eye. Well, certainly any hero with real superpowers can never exist because, sigh, magic doesn’t actually exist. That leaves technology. Iron Man would be way too expensive to approximate in the real world. Who is left? You guessed it. The Caped Crusader. The World’s Greatest Detective. The Batman.
Harvard scientists are hard at work creating a “novel wearable system†that is intended to increase the wearer’s physical endurance by quite a substantial margin. It may not exactly be the Batsuit(it lacks the ears for one) but it is darned close. The suit, designed by Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is lightweight and effectively improves the body’s resistance to injuries while delaying the onset of fatigue. How does it do this? The suit is outfitted with tons of stretchable sensors that monitor the body’s biomechanics. There are no rigid, motion-restricting components here.
Wyss has received a Bruce Wayne-sized grant from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, clocking in at $2.6 million. It is being developed for military use but the technologies could have non-military applications also. For instance, it could help the elderly stay active longer and help the disabled lead fuller lives. The suit is still in the creation stages and, who knows, maybe it won’t even work. We’ll keep you updated as this develops. And guys? If the suit fails you can always use that chunk of change to build the batcave. Just saying.
