After one year, health law already offers lifelines

Many of the key features of the controversial new health law — such as the mandate requiring most Americans to buy insurance and subsidies to help some people afford it — don't go into effect until 2014. Many smaller provisions have kicked in, however, and they have begun doing what the law was designed to do — change a dysfunctional status quo in which too many Americans couldn't get insurance, and even those with coverage had to worry about losing it just when they needed it most:

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‘Solar Soldier’ Project Creating Power-Harvesting Uniforms for British Infantry

Future camouflage uniforms will draw power from the sun during the day and from a soldier’s body during the night, turning infantrymen into true sunshine patriots. The system could provide continuous power for a radio, GPS and weapons, but at half the weight of traditional battery packs.

The Engineering and Physical Research Sciences Center in the UK is working on a new type of fabric that uses solar photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric devices and advanced lightweight batteries. Because the system absorbs heat, it could even serve as a type of wearable stealth cloak, making a soldier less susceptible to detection with infrared cameras.

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