Have you ever imagined that your simple T-shirt could cool you down by up to 5℃ on these hot summer days? Thanks to a recent discovery, the possibility is getting closer. While there are many alternatives that manage to keep the body warm, this amazing invention aims to offer real relief for those who are eager to feel comfortable and fresh in the outdoors on extremely hot days.
Its inventors, engineers Ma Yaoguang of Zhejiang University and Tao Guangming of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, took a completely innovative approach. They designed a special textile (纺织物) that can absorb body heat and reemit (重发出) its energy into space as mid-infrared radiation (MIR). This textile cools both the objects and their surroundings through a technique that is known as radiative cooling. Science reveals. This means that even when it looks like you are wearing a regular shirt, you are actually wearing a device that works like a mirror.
Research conducted at Stanford University in 2017 had already managed to cool the wearer by 3℃, but this previous trial was limited. So researchers still need to test the new approach to determine how effectively the new fabric cools while the wearers are standing or walking, and not directly facing the sky, like in their trials. They also need to examine and measure how well it works when T-shirts are no in close contact with the skin.
Inventors Yaoguang and Guangming are now looking out for textile manufacturers and clothing brands that are interested in using their fabric. They estimate that the new material will increase clothing manufacturing costs by just 10 percent. "We can make it with mass production, which means everybody can get a T-shirt and the cost is basically the same as their old stuff," Yaoguang said.
So if you are an athlete or simply someone that has to deal with the extremely high temperatures, be patient because your days of feeling hot and bothered may be coming to an end!
