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BREAKING THE ICE


DARPA ICE program is pursuing from a biological perspective—to leverage biolog- ical adaptations that allow life to survive in cold and extreme environments.”


INTO THE COLD


Ivan Beckman, Ph.D., acting director of the ERDC-CRREL (orange coat), Christopher Bettinger, Ph.D., DARPA program manager (blue coat) and performer team members of the ICE program inspect ice samples inside an ERDC-CRREL cold box. (Photo by Justin Campfield, ERDC-CRREL)


microorganisms are waking up. We’re isolating bacteria and fungi, [which] means we’re taking them out of the permafrost and we’re looking at them as individuals,” Barbato said. “Ice can be very pesky for equipment for the Air Force, the Army and the Navy. As it gets colder, a thin film of ice can be very problematic in whatever you’re trying to do. Fly a helicopter, use a drone, fly a plane. Deicing is a challenge. Tey [bacteria] can make proteins that can inhibit ice formation. Tose are called antifreeze proteins, and you can inhibit ice as well using these bio-inspired materials.”


Microorganisms, plant life and wild- life are thriving in subzero temperatures. However, humans continue to struggle. By studying the antifreeze proteins found in microorganisms, the ICE program teams hope to develop new bio-inspired products


12 Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2025


that can be used to modulate and control ice. Antifreeze proteins can inhibit or delay the growth of ice, ice nucleation and ice adhesion (how likely ice is to stick to a surface). Asenath-Smith explains that ice nucleation is the process where the small- est particle of ice forms when enough water molecules come together to form a solid, and this solid will continue to grow as long as there continues to be water avail- able. “Imagine fish that live in the Arctic Ocean, and they are swimming around in water that’s below freezing … Why don’t they freeze? While the fish might have tiny ice crystals in their bodies, they have special proteins that ultimately inhibit uncontrolled ice growth. Such antifreeze proteins prevent ice from puncturing cells and breaking veins, to ensure their survival below freezing,” Asenath-Smith said. “Tis example illustrates the heart of what the


While developing methods to protect our nation’s assets are of utmost importance, in recent years the Army has been prior- itizing reducing its negative impact on the environment. By extracting microor- ganisms from the local environment and creating new materials for the military, not only does it give the U.S. military a competitive edge, but these materials will have less negative environmental impact. “Te idea is that it’s more suited to return to that environment and that the environ- mental effect would be minimal,” Barbato said. “Biology is so interesting and how the military is looking at biotechnology to solve these problems because these organ- isms have existed in these situations for thousands of years adapting to survive. So, if we can understand them, then we can help create new materials for the U.S. military to have a competitive edge,” Barbato said.


Barbato explains that once the micro- organisms are extracted, they can be provided to one of the ICE program performer teams. Te performer teams will then study or genetically modify the microorganism’s properties and provide them to Asenath-Smith’s team, which will perform icing studies and the formal IV&V processes at the Ice Adhesion Facil- ity, where deicing technologies are tested and evaluated for a wide range of indus- try and military applications.


A FROZEN FRONTLINE So, what can all this research and devel- opment potentially do for Soldiers? From July 2022 through June 2023, 423 service members suffered from at least one cold weather injury, with the highest injury rate occurring amongst members of the


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