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Jim Rebholz (jrebholz3@comcast.net) writes:
I had read Fall of Reach, and First Strike, and a part of the Chief's armor caught my attention. According to the books, there's a kind of reactive gel sandwiched between the inner and outer layers of the suit. This gel is supposed to be both pressure and temperature sensitive, and able to adjust its properties on the fly. I had recently read a news article about a substance that does just this. It's called magnetorheological fluid. Essentially it's metal particles suspended in an oil or other liquid. When an electrical current is applied the viscosity of the fluid changes almost instantaneously. And it isn't science-fiction or even science-theory. It's in use, and you can find the stuff inside the shock absorbers on the 50th Anniversary Chevrolet Corvette. There it's used to provide a comfortable ride without losing any cornering capability. The military wants to use it to make a bulletproof body armor that's both flexible and impervious.
Yowza. For a little more on magnetorheological fluid properties, see here. The Halo universe gets closer every day...
-mnemesis
