Armed with Science | Tag Archive

Finding Solutions To Service Member Hearing Loss

Filed under Featured, Life Sciences by jtozer on June 5, 2013 at 7:33 am {no comments}

(graphic illustration by Jessica L. Tozer)

As more military service members report hearing loss, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is hosting nationwide experts on how to combat the issue.

Sponsored by ONR’s Warfighter Performance Department, and coinciding with Better Hearing and Speech Month, the meeting will feature academic and military health professionals dedicated to finding solutions to this most common disability among veterans.

“Hearing preservation is not just about ear plugs,” said Kurt Yankaskas, ONR Noise-Induced Hearing Loss program manager.

“We’re looking at everything from making stuff quieter to better operational hearing protection as we go forward in understanding this complex issue.”

Daily, sailors and Marines work on aircraft carriers or in cockpits, engine rooms and other locations where noise levels are in excess of the effectiveness of current hearing protection devices. Similar situations have contributed to an increase in auditory problems across the military.

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First Nighttime Vertical Landing

Filed under Videos by jtozer on April 28, 2013 at 7:22 am {no comments}

Check out this awesome hovering military aircraft!

An F-35B Lightning II completed the first short takeoff and vertical landing during a test mission at night to expand the flight envelope and deliver capability to the warfighter.

Marine Corps test pilot Maj. C.R. Clift conducted the flight to gather data on the helmet and lighting conditions for night operations. The test was one of a series of events being conducted to prepare for the second of three scheduled at-sea test periods during the development program.

“The F-35B will enable the Marine Corps to preserve its expeditionary nature and bring the next generation of war fighting capabilities to the Joint Force,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Aviation.

Footage courtesy of F-35 Integrated Test Force, Patuxent River, Md.

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Soldiers To Get Safer Artillery Rounds

Filed under Featured by jtozer on April 8, 2013 at 7:20 am {no comments}

The Army will take delivery of new artillery rounds which will be safer, but which will also deliver the same performance as those currently used, said an engineer who has tested them.

M795 projectiles, like the ones pictured here, will soon become equipped with IMX-101, making them far less likely to explode if dropped, shot at or hit by a roadside bomb during transport. (Photo by Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher R. Rye)

“Cost, performance and IM” were the deciding factors in the Army choosing IMX-101 to replace trinitrotoluene, called TNT for short, as the explosive material found in artillery shells, said Phil Samuels, a chemical engineer at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

“IM” or insensitive munitions, is the safety factor that was tested.

“TNT does pretty poorly in IM testing against threats such as bullets, fragments, and shaped-charge impacts and fires,” he said.

The testing is fairly rigorous, Samuels said, simulating worst case situations where enemy fire might impact the TNT or IMX-101 filled rounds.

When normal precautions are followed, the TNT doesn’t pose a significant threat. The Army has been using it for at least 90 years, Samuels said.

Army and Marine Corps artillery units will be the first to receive IMX-101 deliveries next year, in the form of 155mm M795 artillery shells.

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Marines Learn How To Detect Invisible Threats

Filed under Featured by jtozer on November 6, 2012 at 7:59 am {no comments}

I would love to say this is a post about ghost hunting, but that would be silly. Ghosts aren’t always invisible.

– JLT

An AN/PDR-77, a device used to detect and measure radiation, sits outside a simulated disaster site during a 2nd Marine Logistics Group training exercise aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Devin Nichols)

Deadly radiation kills if it goes undetected, so it falls upon specially trained Marine to alert units of the unseen danger.

More than 30 Marines from various units within the 2nd Marine Logistics Group learned how to counter radiation by using the AN/PDR-77 during the Monitor Survey Reconnaissance Course.

“Every unit is responsible for having a select number of Marines who are certified with this equipment,” said Sgt. Steven D. Potts, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense specialist with Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd MLG.

It could possibly save the lives of many service members, he added.

CBRN defense specialists trained the Marines to use the AN/PDR-77, a small, box-shaped sensor that detects alpha, beta, gamma and X-ray radiation.

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Lightening the Load

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on October 31, 2012 at 7:05 am {one comment}

Marking a return to its high-mobility, high-tempo expeditionary roots, the Marine Corps is focused on the need to “Lighten the Load” for the warfighter — and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is putting a heavy effort into innovative new technologies that will help.

This video highlights a number of the technologies from ONR that aid the Marines as the service reemphasizes mobile, amphibious capabilities.

Video provided by the Office of Naval Research

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DOD To Track Human Subjects Studies

Filed under Policy, STEM, Technology by jtozer on August 19, 2012 at 7:09 am {no comments}

A Web-based application developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) will form the basis of the nation’s first Defense Department-wide system to track and manage human subject studies funded by the federal government.

The Protections in Research, Oversight Management Information System (PROMIS) is a tool that allows command research protections staff members to submit human research protocols – plans that detail studies involving humans – as well as other documentation for review by Navy and Marine Corps research compliance specialists.

Subsequently, users can track and manage their studies using the Microsoft SharePoint-based system.

“The nation expects more accountability for research involving human subjects,” said Dr. Timothy Singer, director of the research protections division in ONR’s Warfighter Performance Department. “PROMIS offers a way for the entire Department of Defense [DoD] to gain greater insight into protocol submissions and offer better tools with which to manage active projects and the reporting of current and historical research.”

The Department of the Navy (DoN) conducts studies with human subjects to support warfighter training and operational capability as well as the naval medical department’s competency.

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NRL Charges Marine Corps Expeditionary Power Requirements

Filed under Energy, STEM, Technology by jtozer on June 14, 2012 at 7:14 am {no comments}

The MSP photovoltaic prototype, fitted to a standard USMC issue backpack, includes a 10.5-inch x 15.5-inch solar panel able to generate more than 11 Watts under 1-sun air mass (AM) of 1.5 illumination. (Photo by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Electronics Science and Technology Division are working to help the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) reduce expeditionary energy supply needs and risks and increase the effectiveness of forward deployed forces.

“One of the most significant challenges currently facing the Marine Corps is the need to supply sufficient electricity to individual Marines in forward operating bases,” said Robert Walters, head, NRL Solid State Devices Branch. “Mobile photovoltaics are a technology that can address these needs by leveraging emerging, flexible, high efficiency photovoltaic technology.”

The military’s need to reduce both fuel and battery resupply is a real time requirement for increasing combat effectiveness and decreasing vulnerability. The overarching objective of the USMC Expeditionary Energy Strategy is to increase operational energy efficiency on the battlefield through the combination of on-installation alternative energy production and energy demand reduction.

This subsequently is projected to reduce fuel consumed, per Marine, per day, by 50 percent and reduce total weight of batteries carried by nearly 200 thousand pounds.

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ONR Awarding Top Dollar To Top Students

Filed under Challenge, Featured by jtozer on May 13, 2012 at 7:22 am {no comments}

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is awarding more than $160,000 in scholarships to a group of young scientists and engineers competing at Intel ISEF 2012, May 13-18 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) competition draws more than 1,500 students in grades 9 to 12 to showcase their independent research projects and vie for scholarships contributed by government, industry and academia.

“ONR is actively investing in the future by providing scholarships to these students, who represent some of the best and brightest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Dr. Anthony Junior, director, Department of the Navy Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions Program office. “They’re exactly the type of sharp, high achievers that we’ll need to solve problems for the Navy, Marine Corps and the nation.”

ONR’s prize money provides $8,000 Tuition Scholarship Awards to 17 top finishers, plus three awards in the amount of $4,000 each to participants with original research in critical, naval-relevant scientific areas, such as electrical engineering, environmental engineering and microbiology.

ONR also will present four $4,000 Tuition Scholarship Awards to three individuals and one two-member team to attend the London International Youth Science Forum in August. All recipients also receive a certificate signed by Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder and a miniature Lone Sailor statue.

ONR staff will be at Booth No. 402 to provide information about the organization’s many educational outreach programs.

Information for this article provided by the Office of Naval Research

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