It was the ultimate laboratory experiment. Prof. Ned Thomas and eight scientists from MIT last month traded in their white coats for military outfits at Fort Polk, La. THE TEAM WAS THERE to study soldiers in the field—and particularly their uniforms. Just what happens to a Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) “when an 18-year-old gets his hands on it?” asks Thomas, director of MIT’s new Army-funded Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). It was all well and good for the Ph.D.s to use computer models up at MIT, but live data from the rainy woods where troops train were invaluable. The Army...