I don't know about you, but I'm ok wearing a spacesuit while still on Earth, as long as it has air conditioning. And persistent surveillance of my health data, of course.
Not that I want to, but I'm ok with it. And I'm not talking Apollo marshmallow man spacesuit. This suit is actually integrated into your own skin. At some point, it will be hard to distinguish between our clothes and our skin. To "wear" something will have a different meaning, and you won't be able to function without a nano-networked-supercomputer covering your entire body (never mind not being able to live without an air-conditioned bodysuit simply because it's too hot).
Emerging wearable technology uses tiny fibers that can track your blood pressure, heart rate, and more
Dec 2020, phys.org
"It could be a handkerchief which you put on your wrist and it starts giving data."via American Institute of Physics: "Micro/nano fiber-based non-invasive devices for health monitoring diagnosis and rehabilitation," Applied Physics Reviews, aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0010766
Researchers create powerful unipolar carbon nanotube muscles
Jan 2021, phys.org
"Electrochemically driven carbon nanotube (CNT) muscles" sound like a morph suit that's also an exoskeleton.
via University of Texas at Dallas: "Unipolar stroke, electroosmotic pump carbon nanotube yarn muscles" Science (2021). https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6528/494
Wearable plasmonic-metasurface sensor for universal molecular fingerprint detection on biointerfaces
Feb 2021, phys.org
The system contained a flexible sweat extraction process to noninvasively extract and fingerprint analytes inside the body based on their unique Raman scattering spectra.
Light-emitting tattoo engineered for the first time
Feb 2021, phys.org
The technology, which uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is applied in the same way as water transfer tattoos. That is, the OLEDs are fabricated on to temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed on to it and dabbed with water. ... could be combined with other tattoo electronics to, for instance emit light when an athlete is dehydrated, or when we need to get out of the sun to avoid sunburn. OLEDs could be tattooed on packaging or fruit to signal when a product has passed its expiry date or will soon become inedible, or used for fashion in the form of glowing tattoos.via University College London: Jonathan Barsotti et al. Ultrathin, Ultra‐Conformable, and Free‐Standing Tattooable Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes, Advanced Electronic Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1002/aelm.202001145
'Smart clothes' that can measure your movements
Mar 2021, phys.org
via MIT: Yiyue Luo et al. Learning human–environment interactions using conformal tactile textiles, Nature Electronics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-021-00558-0
Post Script:
Researchers find space station's surface microbial profile resembles skin of its crew members
May 2020, phys.org
We will be the spaceship. It will become our bodies, rather, our bodies will become a ship.
via Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Aram Avila-Herrera et al. Crewmember microbiome may influence microbial composition of ISS habitable surfaces, PLOS ONE (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231838
Fungal ghosts protect skin, fabric from toxins, radiation
Mar 2021, phys.org
There's a fungus that naturally makes melanin, which is protective against ultraviolet radiation, and so they grow the melanin, then etch away the fungus, leaving only the melanin cell. The leftovers are called fungal ghosts, and can become a kind of artificial skin. And also for, you know, "potential for applications in long distance space flight."
via Northwestern University: "Allomelanin: A Biopolymer of Intrinsic Microporosity." Journal of the American Chemical Society.
