Copper is one of the most advanced materials in our solar system. After starting life as a primordial isotope thrown out of supernovas billions of years ago, it became central to the rise of civilisation – creating tools and sterilising water, before enabling modern day communication, transport, and electrical power. Now, as we look for materials that offer us resistance to disease on Earth and up in space, copper is set to be at the centre of innovation again.

Hailed by WIRED as “the virus-killing coat of the future,” and winner of TIME Best Inventions, our Full Metal Jacket is built from 11 kilometres of copper. That’s enough copper to stretch from one side of NYC to the other and back, if you got bored one day. Of course we’re really just following in the footsteps of the ancient Egyptians who used copper to create the earliest recorded medical tools, and NASA who are using copper to develop the very latest medical tools for deep space missions.

The surface of the jacket looks computer generated when you’re next to it in real life. And that’s because the hundreds of thousands of moving copper parts warp and ripple like water in the light. But you’d never know the jacket was made out of metal just by touching it. It’s designed to be worn as your everyday jacket and it feels like one. The copper is soft and malleable. It’s only under a microscope you can see the individual copper strands running through every jacket.

Billions of years ago, the copper in every Full Metal Jacket was formed in the cores of massive stars alongside other heavy elements like iron and magnesium in a process known as stellar nucleosynthesis. But as these stars expanded into supergiants, they ran out of hydrogen, started dying, collapsed in colossal explosions known as supernovas, and sprayed the universe with interstellar clouds that went on to form planets like Earth. And that’s why you’ll find copper in Earth’s crust today.

Our jacket starts life as rods of electrolytic industrial copper. These rods are passed through specialised machinery over and over again to create thinner and thinner copper strands. It’s a bit like turning pasta into spaghetti, only in this instance the diameter of the new strands is controlled by lasers for precision. And every time they pass through the machines they’re also stretched a little longer.

Once the copper strands are the right diameter, they’re heated up to make them easier to work with. We then apply a series of very thin coats of lacquer to the yarn to protect the copper from corrosion. Finally the material enters a 6-day curing process in which the yarn is woven on rapier weaving looms before being scoured, heat-set and dried.

The c_change® membrane mimics natural structures like flowers and pinecones, opening and closing in response to changes in temperature, humidity and sweat. It’s designed to keep you at a consistent temperature by combining really high breathability with heat retention. While it can open up like a series of microscopic vents to let heat escape, in the cold it closes itself like a protective barrier to stop heat leaving. So as soon as the temperature drops, or you stop moving, the membrane contracts to insulate you and retain heat close to the body.

As the air temperature rises, the membrane opens up so that excess sweat and heat can escape through the jacket. But while the membrane’s polymer structure opens up to become extremely permeable to water vapour leaving the body, it remains completely waterproof on the outside. It means that even if you held a jacket under a downpour in extreme heat, the jacket will only ever let the water through one way, while still letting heat pass through it.

You’ll find two large side pockets that are lined with fleece on the inside and fasten with water resistant zippers. Two giant bellows pockets are layered over these side pockets. The bellows pockets are protected by angled storm flaps and fasten with metal snap fasteners, and each is large enough to fit an iPad or tools.

The jacket is fitted with a heavy-duty two-way water resistant metal front zipper. Either side of the zipper on the upper chest you’ll find two concealed pockets. Both come with water resistant zipper entrances and are hidden behind storm flaps. The two pockets are large enough for your phone. And inside the jacket there’s a third, internal pocket on the right hand side.

Copper has been used to combat disease for thousands of years. The oldest medical tools ever discovered were made from copper 4,000 years ago, and were found entombed with the remains of Qar, a royal physician from the Sixth Dynasty in ancient Egypt. The Smith Papyrus shows that 1,000 years earlier the Egyptians were using copper to sterilise wounds and transport clean drinking water. And they weren’t alone. The Babylonians would sharpen their swords and put the copper alloy filings into cuts sustained in battle to reduce infection and speed healing.

4,000 years after the Egyptians, NASA is exploring the use of 3D-printed copper medical instruments on long-duration space missions. One of the issues with longer missions is that astronauts can experience an altered immune response, known as Immune System Dysregulation. It’s a condition that can leave them more susceptible to infectious diseases, which can harm their performance and in turn limit human space exploration. So NASA is now testing medical instruments built from copper for use onboard the International Space Station, to help reduce the risk of infection in space.