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I don’t know which nanotechnology this guy is using, but it’s on their website…
After Bwog was alerted to the possibility of some secrets lurking in the murky past of our new Dean of SEAS, Mary Boyce, we sent our Crazed Conspiracy theorist, Maud Rozee, to see what she could uncover.
A few days ago, Bwog received a message from a member of MIT’s anti-war commission about our soon-to-be-beloved new Dean of SEAS, former Dean of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Mary Boyce. The tipster, Rachel “Dreadlocks” Goldstein (I’m not making this up), MIT class of 2013, warned us that DMC “does not work to make the world a better place”, and was involved with the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, which “is, in two words, fucking sketchy”.
After some investigation, I can report that the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) is pretty hardcore. It was founded in 2002 to help the Army “explore the potential power of nanotechnology to enable unprecedented advances in capabilities for Soldier protection and survivability.” To that end, they’re working on paper-thin, bullet-proof armor, easy chemical detection of explosives and weaving life-saving and communications technologies into military uniforms. The results of its research are available to both the army and other industries.
And yes, Dean Boyce worked there. According to one recent report, she was working with others to develop “novel microtruss polymeric and ceramic structures for ballistic protection via interference lithography coupled with infiltration into nanostructured templates” which sounds pretty… cool.
Is the ISN up to anything more sinister than defending soldiers? The conspiracy theory evidence is not exactly compelling, but fun to speculate about. Our MIT tipster tells us that:
It is in a completely unmarked building on the Northeast part of campus, surrounded by an office park and a couple of pharmaceutical companies. Access to the building is very heavily controlled. Once you use an ID to swipe in, you have to use a second ID and a biometric retinal scanner to use the elevator and head up to the institute. In the lobby, there are two soldiers with assault rifles.
In other words, it’s a research institute run by the American military and there could be a few Top Secrets inside. I visited the location given at the bottom of the ISN’s (unrealistically faulty) webpage, on Google Earth. I’m pretty sure this is where someone’s office is, not the actual laboratories, but I found traces of danger and mystery nonetheless.
And, of course, if you google hard enough you can find people claiming that the ISN is covering up the fact that 9/11 was an inside job. That’s pretty par for the course, though.
Is the ISN building robot super soldiers who will soon grow tired of being our slaves and rebel against us? Well, as a conspiracy expert, I can safely say probably not.
The truth is that the evilness of the ISN, and Dean Boyce’s involvement with them, depends wholly on your views about war and the American military. If you’re vehemently anti-war, you’ll be disgusted that DMC would help the US army. If you like the idea of soldiers being safer, you’ll think that DMC is an awesomely accomplished scientist. You don’t need to believe in any conspiracy theories to know that the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies is working on technologies which have the potential to make American soldiers both safer and more dangerous.
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11 Comments
@Anonymous Because we all know Columbia doesn’t do military research… Oh wait most of the CS department’s research is funded by DARPA.
@Anonymous I just rubbed one out.
@Stop the Presses Extra, Extra! Military has money, funds engineering research.
@Actual MIT Student Is this a joke? That’s the front entrance to MIT, not the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology…
This is the INS: http://imgur.com/CaOlLLd. Everyone here thinks that it is is sketchy, because it _is_ sketchy.
Look at the guy on the right and tell me you aren’t afraid: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/isn.jpg
@CC15 I’m always fascinated by the fact that people from other schools find their blogs so droll that they have to browse around on others’ gossip/campus news blogs let alone comment on them.
nuthin like Bwog, I guess.
@seas 16 Many of us have been to MIT and recognize the front entrance. Its kinda like not recognizing Low, and its pretty easy to look up INS. If you really want to look up MIT’s current contribution to the military, look up draper labs.
@Anonymous I always think you shouldn’t be nasty to be people in the internet because you being nasty to them might be the thing that sends the over the edge. They might quite literally kill themselves because of your flippant comment. It’s like smiling at old people when you walk past them on the street; that might be the only smile they get that day. Or that month. So it’s always worth it, even if you don’t feel like smiling.My grandma used to say “a smile costs nothing, but is worth so much”. And I like to live by that idea, both IRL and on the internet.Some of the people on here are truly fragile; remember that. The comment you give them on here might be the only interaction they have all day. So make it a positive one.
@Hey Miss America You forgot to add you wanted world peace as well as food for all the starving children in Africa.
@http://bbs.gg69.me/ Dean Boyce is try to protect us and all the starving Afrikan childrens from extraterrarestials’ attack.
@The Dark Hand yea yea yea but what’s her stance on the spec?
@anon This only makes me more excited to have Boyce as dean.