As many as 320,000 U.S. troops may have sustained brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet less than half of them were evaluated by doctors. But now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Pentagon is funding a project to develop a device that would do on-site testing for brain trauma, and be tough enough to hold up in a war zone.

The gadget, which is being developed by neurosurgeon Jamshid Ghajar and his team at Weill Cornell Medical College, will use eye-tracking technology to measure the brain's health.

Hear more about author James Vlahos's experience in the Army's new smell simulator on the PopSci Podcast.

For years, the U.S. military has wanted a plane that could loiter just outside enemy territory for more than a dozen hours and, on command, hurtle toward a target faster than the speed of sound. And then level it. But aircraft that excel at subsonic flight are inefficient at Mach speeds, and vice versa. The answer is Switchblade, an unmanned, shape-changing plane concept under development by Northrop Grumman.

Launch the slideshow to learn how the seafood bandage works.

When it comes to war wounds, red is dead. Stop the bleeding, and you save the soldier. It´s a simple idea that´s driving a budding industry for fast-acting blood-clotting agents.

Click "Slideshow" to the left for PopSci's Iraq tech report card

The mission changes for Charlie Company seconds after the soldiers roll off the base. The dreary night patrol around Balad, a shambling Shi´ite town in north-central Iraq, has just been canceled. It´s time instead to hightail it west, to the Sunni neighborhood of Ad Duluiyah. â€Alpha Company is taking direct fire,†a voice crackles over the radio in First Lt. Brian Feldmayer´s Humvee. â€I need you to expedite."

War spurs innovation, and U.S. soldiers are seeing a lot of it. How well is the new equipment performing in Iraq? href="http://www.popsci.com/popsci/slideshow/2006/c87d8069b864b010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html"
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