Late last year the U.S. Army went shopping for some new uniforms. It wasn't interested in camouflage jumpsuits and olive drabs or even in better versions of the high-tech gear worn by the troops in Afghanistan. What the army wanted was a lightweight combat uniform capable of stopping bullets and toxins, monitoring a soldier's health, communicating with remote commanders-even enabling superhuman strength. But despite the extravagance of that vision, and even though they were looking to academic research institutions for help, army officials made another key desire clear. As MIT materials scientist Edwin Thomas recalls, they "didn't want just papers in Science or Nature. They wanted real stuff."

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