The Russian satellite Sputnik was launched into space at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s.
In America, the Sputnik satellite was met with complete national security fear.
In response to the national threat posed by the Russian satellite launch, President Dwight Eisenhower created DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - it was initially just called ARPA).
The agency was designed as a freewheeling Pentagon office with a goal to prevent technological surprises like Sputnik.
Since its inception, DARPA research initiatives have successfully challenged the boundaries of known science and technology.
In fact, it was a DARPA initiative that would eventually lead to the initial creation of the Internet in the late 1950s.
Of course, we all know how that advanced technology project has turned out.
What was initially just a raw product of imagination and research has evolved throughout the last five decades into what Google now estimates is an index of at least one trillion internet websites worldwide.
Indeed, in addition to the Internet, DARPA has been a catalyst for the invention of an astonishing array of information technology (IT) breakthroughs.
DARPA has an early research imprint on everything from computer graphics to microprocessors.
The truth is that working with universities and commercial business, initial DARPA research has led directly to fourteen one billion dollar industries in information technology today.
Since the year 2000, DARPA has become more focused on research projects primarily designed to improve the military battlefield of tomorrow.
These projects include cyborg insects and sharks, military robots, human sensing devices that can see through concrete, and a hybrid satellite/plane that that can hover well above a battlefield for extended periods of time.
Some DARPA projects are long-term in scope and have not yet produced any tangible results.
However, other projects have already been successful and have led to useful military applications such as wearable computers, long-range drone aircraft, night vision, the M16 rifle, and even the computer mouse.
The truth is that some of the most advanced technology of the battlefield of today was initially a research project with DARPA.
Also, many of these same military technological advances have led to other useful products and services in the commercial sector as well.
Recently, a DARPA project that caught my attention is what the military used to call Metabolic Dominance, but now it refers to the program as Peak Soldier Performance.
The goal of this program is to assure that the soldier of the future has superior physiological qualities.
In fact, DARPA states that its long term research program is designed to "enable superior physical and physiological performance by controlling energy metabolism on demand.
An example is continuous peak physical performance and cognitive function for 3 to 5 days, 24 hours per day, without the need for calories.
" In truth the research behind the program attempts to take the humanity out of the battlefield soldier.
A soldier's fatigue, desire to eat, sleep, handle pain, and other human needs would be replaced by optimum military performance every minute on a mission for up to five consecutive days.
During the last several years, the Peak Performance program has been researching ways to control the human metabolism in order to achieve the perfect fighting machine.
The agency has focused research in several areas to discover how this might be achieved.
For example, a cocktail of nutrients could help build endurance.
Lowering a soldier's core body temperature might keep him from overheating.
Or, perhaps, the change could be made at the microscopic level, by turbo-charging the cell's energy suppliers, providing endurance and power to the soldier while relieving battlefield stress.
The Peak Performance project is now currently in advanced testing and has already reported numerous successes.
In the area of thermo regulation, investigators have developed a novel device for core body cooling/warming based on efficient heat transfer from various parts of the body, especially the palms and soles.
In addition, the program has identified several candidate nutrients with important effects on microscopic metabolism and biogenesis.
In preliminary laboratory experiments, these nutrients improve the content and efficiency of the cells' energy supply following short-term supplementation in a person's diet .
The effects of these nutrients are now being validated in controlled clinical studies.
Perhaps most importantly, the program has recently identified a key bio molecule that is altered by stress, and may be the cause of muscle fatigue following rigorous exercise.
Overall, the Peak Performance Program seeks to develop safe and effective methods to maintain the soldier's highest level of performance under the stressful conditions of combat.
The Program also seeks to enhance the basic science foundation so that additional important breakthroughs might be forthcoming once the initial research is complete.
The record of achievement of DARPA in the advancement of science and technology during the last fifty years is certainly remarkable, but what ever happened to that dreaded Cold War Sputnik Russian satellite that was the catalyst to create the DARPA program in the first place? Well, it would fall back to earth in failure in just three short months.
It is funny how many important achievements often occur as a response to our fears.
It is really a lesson that should be given every consideration by DARPA before the total humanity of the future soldier comes under strict military control.