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These Jackets Leverage Aerogel To Keep You Warm No Matter The Temperature
It's Getting Cold in hereOros wants to help you make it through subzero temperatures without getting cold. Strangely enough, the company hopes to accomplish this goal by using a material that is 99.8% air. That may sound like a rather questionable choice, but it begins to make sense once you know what aerogel is.
Aerogel is one of the lightest solid materials known to man. And as chance would have it, it's also amazingly good as reducing heat transfer. This means that when it is used in clothing, what is cold (like the outside air) stays cold and what is hot (your body) stays hot.
In an interview, Michael Markesbery, co-founder of Oros, clarified, "Aerogel is an amazing insulator because it's the lowest thermal conductive solid on the planet.....In fact, it's what NASA uses in outer space, where the temperature is only two degrees above absolute zero [-273ºC /459ºF]."
To that end, the jackets that Oros produces are lined with this material, which means that they aren't just super light-weight, they are also able to withstand remarkably cold temperatures (far colder than any of us are ever likely to encounter). In fact, aerogel is such a good thermal insulator that the insulation used inside the jackets is only a mere 3mm thick, which easily beats the other bulky coats on the market.
Image credit: Oros Raining NitrogenMarkesberyis so confident in his product that he even donned the suit and allowed himself to be blasted with liquid nitrogen, which reaches a deadly -196ºC (-320ºF). Though to be fair, when I spoke with him, Markesbery noted that he did feel a little trepidation before he did it the first time.
Liquid nitrogen is so cold that any direct contact with the material results in instantaneous frostbite. Touch enough of it, and things will go downhill for you very quickly. But not only did Markesbery manage to keep from freezing himself, even when they blasted him with the liquid nitrogen directly on the sensor, the jacket kept things inside at a balmy 32.8ºC (91.1ºF).
Check out the video below for fun with liquid nitrogen (note: absolutely do not try this yourself).
Oh, Then There's the GrapheneIf that's not enough, Oros also uses graphene in their design.
If you aren't farmilar with the material, graphene is an atom-thick layer of carbon that is structured in a honeycomb pattern. Ultimately, it was the thinnest material in the world, yet it had a strength that is hundreds of times better than steel. More interestingly, its unique structure also gives it the ability to conduct and transmit electrons up to 250 times that of silicon.
Markesbery notes that, while aerogel is the best insulator we've discovered, graphene is the world's best conductor.
To that end, in the gloves, graphene is placed on the inner side (close to your hand) and aerogel is used on the outside. Thus, the graphene warms as a result of your body temperature, creating a kind of "batteryless self-heating mechanism," and the aerogel stops the heat from going anywhere.
When I asked Markesbery about dying of a heat stroke as a result of the design, he was quick to note that the graphene is only used in the gloves (partially because of the cost of the material and partially because of overheating concerns). He went on to explain that a number of standard "breathability" features are built in to ensure that you stay warm, but not uncomfortably so.
You can get your gear here.
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Canadian Wildfires Leaving Major Cities With Worst Air In US
CHICAGO — Drifting smoke from the ongoing wildfires across Canada is creating curtains of haze and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region, and in parts of the central and eastern United States.
The Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow.Gov site showed parts of Illinois, lower Michigan and southern Wisconsin had the worst air quality in the U.S. On Tuesday afternoon, and Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee had air quality categorized as "very unhealthy."
In Minnesota, a record 23rd air quality alert was issued Tuesday through late Wednesday night across much of the state, as smoky skies obscure the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
On Tuesday, Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy issued an air quality alert for the entire state. Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources also issued an air quality advisory for the state.
A person walks along the shore of Lake Michigan as the downtown skyline is blanketed in haze from Canadian wildfires Tuesday in Chicago.
Kiichiro Sato, Associated PressIn Chicago — where the air quality has been categorized as "unhealthy" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — officials are urging young people, older adults and residents with health problems to spend more time indoors.
"Just driving into the zoo ... You could just see around the buildings, kind of just haze," said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Some day care centers in the Chicago area have told parents that their children will remain indoors Tuesday due to the poor air quality, while one youth sports club says it adjusted its activities to add more time indoors.
"We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors," Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a release. "As these unsafe conditions continue, the city will continue to provide updates and take swift action to ensure that vulnerable individuals have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families."
In the Milwaukee area, Flight for Life Wisconsin was unable to respond to a motorcycle-van crash because the Federal Aviation Administration requires 2 miles visibility, and the visibility was reduced to three-quarters to 1.5 miles because of the hazy skies, Executive Director Leif Erickson said.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday that 29,393 square miles including forests has burned across Canada since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 29,187 square miles, according to the National Forestry Database.
Nationally, there are currently 490 fires burning, with 255 of them considered to be out of control.
Even recent rainfall in Quebec likely won't be enough to extinguish the wildfires ravaging the northern part of that province, but the wet weather could give firefighters a chance to get ahead of the flames, officials said Tuesday.
Nearly a quarter of the fires burning in Canada are in Quebec. Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said he expects rain to stop falling by Wednesday morning in the regions most affected by forest fires.
Earlier this month, massive fires burning stretches of Canadian forests blanketed the northeastern United States and the Great Lakes region, turning the air yellowish gray, and prompting warnings for people to stay inside and keep windows closed.
The small particles in wildfire smoke can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and can affect the heart and lungs, making it harder to breathe. Health officials say it's important to limit outdoor activities as much as possible to avoid breathing in these particles.
A haze from Canadian wildfires on Tuesday hangs over Milwaukee.
Morry Gash, Associated PressFires in northern Quebec and low pressure over the eastern Great Lakes are sending smoke through northern Michigan, and across southern Wisconsin and Chicago, said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Jackson added that a north wind would push the smoke further south, moving into Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky later Tuesday and overnight.
Southwestern Michigan has a high air quality index, over 200 on a 500-point index, he noted. That's considered unhealthy for everyone because it denotes high levels of fine particle pollution, or PM2.5 particles.
"Until the fires are out, there's a risk," Jackson said. "If there's any north component to the wind, there's a chance it'll be smoky."
In early June, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that hundreds of American firefighters and support personnel have been in Canada since May, and called attention to the fires as a reminder of the impacts of climate change.
The warming planet will produce hotter and longer heat waves, making for bigger, smokier fires, according to Joel Thornton, professor and chair of the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.
Priti Marwah, who was beginning a run along the city's lakefront, described the haze Tuesday in Chicago as "bad."
"Like, you can smell it bad," she said. "I run a hundred miles a week, so this is going to be dangerous today. You can feel it ... Just even parking right there and coming out, I can feel it in my lungs."
Smoke from wildfires in Canada blankets Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday. The smoke is reducing visibility and air quality.
Neil Blake, The Grand Rapids Press via APSmoke from the wildfires moved into Minnesota late Monday, and ground-level smoke is expected to linger across southern, east-central and northeastern Minnesota. That includes the Twin Cities area, up to the northeast corner of the state and down to the southwest and southeast corners.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency tweeted that Tuesday marked the 23rd air quality alert in Minnesota this year, breaking the previous record of 21 in 2021. Minnesota usually averages two or three alerts in a season.
St. Paul recorded the worst air quality in the United States two weeks ago due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. As of midday Tuesday, the air quality was rated "unhealthy" across eastern Minnesota from the Canadian border to the Iowa border.
The MPCA said a cold front will move across Minnesota on Wednesday, bringing cleaner air from the west across the region by early Thursday.
These regions see the worst wildfires These regions see the worst wildfiresWildfires are critical to maintaining a healthy, balanced ecosystem. They keep diseases and harmful pests at bay; clear dead, unhealthy, or overgrown vegetation, promoting new growth and habitats; and fortify the soil with vital nutrients. Some species, like pyrophytic plants, have adapted to naturally occurring, low-severity fires and even depend on wildfires in order to propagate. Each one of these benefits has countless, far-reaching impacts of its own.
But human activity, negligence, and anthropogenic-driven climate change are disrupting the natural fire ecology in many regions. Although some wildfires occur naturally—those caused by lightning strikes, for example—the vast majority of wildfires do not. Between 2018 and 2022, 89% of wildfires were the result of human activity.
Insurify cited data from the National Interagency Fire Center to identify which regions have experienced the worst wildfires over the past decade and highlight how 2022 compared. States are ranked by the 10-year average of acreage burned per wildfire.
- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 921,091 acres
--- Number of fires: 4,099
--- Area per fire: 8.2 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 246,990 acres (73.2% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 3,429 (16.3% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 72.0 acres (779.5% greater 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2020 (2.8 million acres)
Driven by extreme heat and extended drought conditions, seven of California's 10 largest wildfires on record have happened within the past five years. Ten of the state's top 20 most destructive fires have also happened within the last five years and have burned a cumulative area of land roughly the size of Connecticut.
PHILIP PACHECO // Getty Images #9. Eastern area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 81,067 acres
--- Number of fires: 9,468
--- Area per fire: 8.4 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 64,342 acres (20.6% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 8,592 (9.3% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 7.5 acres (10.4% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2021 (152,669 acres)
The Eastern area of the U.S. Includes 20 states between Maine and Minnesota and those as far south as Missouri, West Virginia, and Maryland. As in the West, the Eastern area has also been impacted by drought and extreme heat. The East actually experiences more wildfires than the West; however, they're usually much smaller and less severe. In 2022, roughly 20,000 wildfires burned approximately 5.8 million acres in the West, compared to more than 48,000 fires that burned under 2 million acres in the East.
Education Images // Getty Images #8. Great Basin area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 1.1 million acres
--- Number of fires: 2,634
--- Area per fire: 15.2 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 436,598 acres (59.7% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 2,121 (19.5% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 205.8 acres (1253.6% greater 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2012 (2.5 million acres)
The Great Basin area, which includes much of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah, has seen larger, more destructive wildfires in recent years, largely due to extreme drought. In recent years, southern Nevada has experienced exceptional drought conditions. In 2022, the average wildfire covered a footprint roughly 14 times larger than the average fire from the past decade. Fires in the rangelands of the Great Basin area are fueled by grasses such as cheatgrass, which is abundant and burns easily.
George Frey // Getty Images #6. Rocky Mountain area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 540,381 acres
--- Number of fires: 2,991
--- Area per fire: 161.2 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 273,503 acres (49.4% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 2,392 (20.0% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 114.3 acres (29.1% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2012 (1.2 million acres)
Forests at high elevations in the Rocky Mountains are burning more now than at any time in the past 2,000 years as a result of extreme heat and drought, according to a 2021 study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2020 alone, the area burned in the central Rocky Mountains nearly doubled the cumulative area burned in that region since 1984, the study found. This trend is especially alarming because, historically, subalpine forests burn infrequently.
John Moore // Getty Images #5. Southern California area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 384,102 acres
--- Number of fires: 4,619
--- Area per fire: 210.5 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 87,350 acres (77.3% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 4,460 (3.4% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 19.6 acres (90.7% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2020 (1.1 million acres)
The Southern California area includes everything south of Sacramento. Extreme heat and drought have impacted this region more than most others in the U.S. An abundance of dead, dry, accumulated vegetation—including pine needles and leaf litter—is wildfire fuel just waiting for combustion. In 2021 alone, roughly 1.5 million acres of the Sierra Nevada region—which span into Southern California—burned. The majority of those acres were subject to high-severity fire, which killed at least three-quarters of the vegetation.
Sandy Huffaker // Getty Images #4. Northern Rockies area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 601,391 acres
--- Number of fires: 3,179
--- Area per fire: 316.9 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 223,746 acres (62.8% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 2,710 (14.8% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 82.6 acres (73.9% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2017 (1.6 million acres)
Montana, North Dakota, northern Idaho, and portions of South Dakota and Wyoming comprise the Northern Rockies region. Here, excessive dryness can lead to increased risks of wildfires. Recent assessments of the region describe how drought, even in the midst of extreme cold, can freeze-dry vegetation, which then fuels wildfires in the absence of low moisture levels.
DanVanPelt // Shutterstock #3. Northwest area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 1.2 million acres
--- Number of fires: 3,717
--- Area per fire: 342.5 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 631,605 acres (47.1% less than 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 3,611 (2.9% less than 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 174.9 acres (48.9% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2020 (2.0 million acres)
Encompassing Washington and Oregon, the Northwest area is characterized by forests, shrublands, and grasslands. Climate change has led to extreme heat and drought conditions in the region; this includes less snowpack, earlier snowpack melt, dry soil, and dry vegetation. These factors—especially in tandem—have intensified wildfires, making it easier for them to start and spread.
PAYTON BRUNI // Getty Images #2. Southern area- 10-year average
--- Area burned: 894,181 acres
--- Number of fires: 27,247
--- Area per fire: 368.0 acres
- 2022 numbers
--- Acres burned: 1.5 million acres (69.8% greater 10-year average)
--- Number of fires: 38,945 (42.9% greater 10-year average)
--- Area per fire: 39.0 acres (89.4% less than 10-year average)
- Worst year of the decade: 2017 (2.0 million acres)
The Southern area covers 13 states, from Virginia down to Florida on the East Coast and stretching as far west as Oklahoma and Texas. Modeling suggests the Southeastern U.S. Will experience an increase in fire risk as well as a longer fire season over the next several decades. Climate change will also likely bring more lightning. Areas burned by lightning-ignited wildfires are expected to increase by 30% by 2060.
Oscar Sosa // Getty ImagesPoor Air Quality Over Midwest; Court Date Postponed For Trump's Valet; Seacrest Will Host 'Wheel Of Fortune'Hot Off The Wire Podcast
On this version of Hot off the Wire:
» The haze of unhealthy air that settled over the Great Lakes region Tuesday reminded U.S. Residents from the Midwest to the Northeast and as far south as Kentucky to brace for more depending on which way the wind blows as Canadian wildfires rage on.
» An unrelenting heat wave in Texas is testing the state's power grid as demand soars during a second week of triple-digit temperatures.
» Ukraine's counterintelligence service arrested a man they accused of helping Russia direct a deadly missile strike that killed at least 10 people at a popular pizza restaurant.
» More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives. That's according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs designed to help small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years.
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» Authorities have confirmed that British actor Julian Sands died while hiking on a Southern California mountain.
» A court appearance has been postponed for a Donald Trump valet charged with helping the ex-president hide classified documents the Justice Department wanted back. A lawyer for valet Walt Nauta told a judge Nauta had been unable to find a Florida-based attorney and was stuck in New Jersey after his flight was canceled.
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» The Justice Department's watchdog says negligence, misconduct and job failures enabled Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life at a federal jail in New York City while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
» The Supreme Court has ruled that state courts can act as a check on their legislatures in redistricting and other issues affecting federal elections.
» The American consumer's confidence jumped in June to its highest level in 18 months as a strong labor market continues to buoy the U.S. Economy.
» A community college in eastern Kentucky says Bluegrass musician Bobby Osborne has died. He was 91.
» Ryan Seacrest will become the new "Wheel of Fortune" host after Pat Sajak's retirement next year.
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