Bio-inspired Innovation and National Security

For the average person, the mainstream media, and perhaps even the typical warfighter, the application of biology to military operations probably conjures up negative thoughts of Cold War–era biological weapons programs, the use of plague or other diseases as weapons during war, the effects of the Spanish flu on forces in Europe during World War I, medical treatments for severed limbs caused by battlefield injuries, and mental anguish caused by post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. It is unfair to blame people for thinking of biological weapons or applications of biology to medicine when “biology in the military” is mentioned. To some degree, the two are difficult to separate from each other.