Super-cooling nanofibre inspired by ants

‘PhysicsWorld: Cool’ Saharan ants’ silver hairs cause total internal reflection

From BusinessWire

The summer of 2023 was by far the hottest in history. People were seeking solace in air-conditioned spaces or donning cooling attire. Here’s some food for thought: Can buildings also be outfitted with similar cooling solutions?

Led by Professor Dehui Wan from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan, a research team drew inspiration from the silver ants inhabiting the Sahara Desert and created a biomimetic material called "super-cooling nanofiber."

Covering roofs with this thin, pliable, and durable fiber membrane, which is resistant to UV rays and acid rain, is like adorning buildings with cooling attire. This innovation can lead to a reduction of over 12˚C in indoor temperatures, resulting in significant savings in electricity costs. Furthermore, it aligns with the broader goals of energy efficiency, carbon reduction, and ultimately, the protection of our planet.

Professor Wan pointed out that Saharan silver ants manage to thrive in scorching temperatures of up to 70˚C primarily because of their triangular prism-like hairs. These hairs reflect a significant portion of the sunlight that hits them. Most of the absorbed energy from visible light is converted to longer wavelength infrared light, which is then emitted through the hairs, leading to an efficient cooling effect.

Taking cues from the hairs of these desert-dwelling ants, the research team embarked on a comprehensive exploration of diverse materials, configurations, dimensions, and hues. Using advanced optical engineering techniques, they employed ceramic materials to create white fibers measuring just a few hundred nanometers in diameter. These fibers possess the ability to reflect 97% of sunlight, resulting in a substantial cooling effect.

In the blistering sun, Professor Wan led his students as they conducted experiments on the roofs of campus buildings. They applied the super-cooling nanofiber membrane to the roofs of small-scale houses and used an infrared thermal camera to measure the temperature. This resulted in a notable decrease from 50˚C to 29˚C. Likewise, temperatures often rose to 60˚C inside a model car during the hot summer days. Yet, after applying the super-cooling nanofiber membrane, the temperature decreased by 17˚C.

The research team found that this innovative ceramic nanofiber doesn't just reflect sunlight; it also converts absorbed heat into infrared radiation, which passes through the atmospheric layer known as the "atmospheric window" and dissipates into the cold vastness of outer space, rather than being retained at the Earth's surface or in the atmosphere. This development holds promise for mitigating the greenhouse effect, providing a ray of hope in the battle against global warming.

The research project, led by NTHU in collaboration with National Taiwan University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, achieved international recognition when it was published in the prestigious journal Nano Today in February 2023. The team is currently in the process of applying for twelve domestic and international patents for the super-cooling materials.

If we can cool houses using a nano-fibre cover, we'll be able to use less electricity for air conditioning.  Makes sense. 

Cooling cities down with fountains?

 An interesting article in the Guardian

The secret to more livable, cooler Australian cities may lie with the ancient Romans and a network of fountains like the Trevi and those in Piazza Navona, a new report on tackling urban heat has found.

Rome has a network of 2,000 fountains which draw huge crowds daily to enjoy their cooling effects in the dense city.

Sydney planners should take note, says the president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Barry Calvert.

According to the Cooling Western Sydney study undertaken jointly by the University of New South Wales and Sydney Water, while greenery does have a cooling effect, the most effective results come from a combination of water-based technologies – these include fountains – and cool material technologies such as cool roofs and pavements.

The study used sophisticated modelling and expertise in microclimatic research to evaluate the impact of urban heat mitigation technologies (greenery, water and cool materials) in western Sydney.

It then modelled specific sites in western Sydney to assess the impact of specific technologies, including reducing energy costs and heat-related deaths, which are up to three times higher in western Sydney during extreme heat events.

The NSW government is currently planning the new Western Parkland City around the second airport at Badgerys Creek, 60km west of the CBD.

The Aerotropolis, now renamed Bradfield, will eventually be home to 1.5 million people, but with temperatures 6C to 10C higher than the coast, the region presents a challenge to ensure it does not become a heat island, with an unhealthy microclimate.

The emphasis so far has been on creating a tree canopy, though the early plans also aim to retain creeks and waterways and avoid building in flood plains.

The new study urges a focus on water infrastructure to enable greater cooling and the use of materials that have a high reflective (albedo) score.

That will require planning to ensure the reuse of water and measures such as banning black roofs and dark road surfaces.

The study used experimental data about the urban heat island effect from 101 Australian and Asian cities to understand how the phenomenon worked.

The study found that higher reductions in temperatures have been achieved by the scenario of water-based technologies combined with cool materials.

“More specifically, it was found that increasing the global albedo to 0.5 by the large scale application of cool materials and implementing water-based technologies may result in an average air temperature reduction of 1.5C in the area, with local reductions close to the water reaching 10C,” the study said.


Based on data from the summer of 2016-17, when there were severe hot spells, the modelling showed that combined use of cool materials and water could lower the cumulative heat-related deaths in the far west from 14 to approximately 7.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

Closer to the coast, heat-related deaths could be lowered to approximately five deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

“While greenery does have a cooling effect, the study shows the most effective urban heat mitigation technologies are those incorporating a combination of water-based technologies with cool materials,” the study found.

Calvert said investments in water supply services and infrastructure could help cities become more resilient to global warming and heatwaves.

“This could consist of such things as installing or repairing fountains for drinking and cooling, and for cooling spaces by using water spray fountains, along with cooling by wetting streets,” he said.

“Fountains can decrease surrounding air temperatures by 3C and their cooling effect can be felt up to 35 metres away,” Calvert said.

“Fountains also have social value. Children play in fountains and people enjoy fountains in parks and squares, and they serve as meeting places.

“Who knows? Maybe it’s time we turned greater Sydney into a city of fountains?” Calvert said.

They key facts in the article:

• Fountains can reduce air temperature by 3 degrees C (5.4 F)
• Their cooling effect can be felt up to 35 metres (115 feet) away
• A combination of cool materials and fountains can reduce temperatures over large areas by 1.5 C, and smaller areas by 10 C

If we combined fountains *and* trees *and* pale roofs, we might almost eliminate the urban heat island effect.   I wrote a piece where researchers said that a street lined with large trees could cut temperatures by 5 degrees C compared to adjacent areas without trees---see "The Magic of Trees".

U.S. cities boil under deadly extreme temperatures

From CBS News

This summer's deadly heat waves have left people throughout the U.S. and Europe desperate for relief. It's urban centers that have felt the intense temperatures the most — and where experts say it's only expected to get worse.

That's because of something called the urban heat island effect.

"Simply put, it means that urban centers are hotter than the surrounding suburban areas," Liv Yoon, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University's Climate School, told CBS News. She explained that the effect is like a "dome overarching the city" that's created by carbon emissions, air getting trapped amid tall buildings, and a lack of open space and greenery, among other things.

"All of that is building and building and it has nowhere to escape," she said.

This dome effect can cascade over entire cities, although it also impacts specific neighborhoods within that urban area very differently. According to the recently launched heat.gov website, neighborhoods in the same city can have temperatures differing by roughly 15º to 20ºF at the same time depending on their levels of tree cover and and other factors.

Pretty much every metropolitan area experiences this effect to some degree. About 85% of the U.S. population currently lives in metro areas, and a the heat island effect is felt most intensely in New Orleans, New York City, Houston, San Francisco and Newark, New Jersey, according to a 2021 report by the nonprofit Climate Central.

"Today, there are over 200 to 250 million people that experience temperatures of over 35ºC [95ºF] every summer, living in about 318 urban areas" across the U.S., environmental scientist and climate resilience specialist Deborah Brosnan said. "So, it's a lot of people experiencing it."

Yoon, the heat island researcher, is part of a project participating in a nationwide campaign by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to "make heat visible." Teams in various U.S. cities — including Yoon's in New York City — have been tracking temperatures to show the impact of excessive heat and the heat island effect.

A map of their findings in New York shows how by the afternoon and evening, the heat index is substantially higher in the neighborhoods of Washington Heights, Harlem and the South Bronx when compared to the Upper East Side, Central Park and the Upper West Side.

"Within a city, just because there's a heat wave going on, no one's experiencing that the same exact way everywhere," Jeremy Hoffman, an environmental science professor and scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia, told CBS News.

In his own research in Richmond, Hoffman's team found a 16ºF difference between the coolest and warmest places — less than 3 miles apart — at the exact same time during a heat wave.

The phenomenon isn't confined to summer heat waves. It's year-round.

"Urban areas tend to be several degrees warmer than their outlying rural areas throughout the year," Hoffman said. "That tends to be actually kind of a good thing for our energy needs in the wintertime, but in the summertime … when it's on our hottest days with the brightest sunshine, the least amount of wind and the least amount of cloud cover, these conditions tend to become the recipe for these extreme temperature difference to become the most stark."

Ben Zaitchik, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS News that urban heat lingers, and is usually maximized, at night. The sustained high temperatures prevent people from getting relief when their bodies desperately need it.

The negative impact extends beyond sheer discomfort. Areas with extreme and prolonged heat see increased cases of kids with asthma going to the emergency room, older adults with chronic lung issues having complications, and decreased worker productivity because of heat exhaustion, Zaitchik said. It can also be deadly.

"There's a literal, physiological limit, which is that once you get above a certain threshold of temperature and humidity, you can't sweat," he said. The body's internal temperature is about 98.6ºF, but without the ability to sweat, the body can't cool down, and body temperature can rapidly increase to 106ºF or more within 10 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"At that point, you're really kind of incompatible with human life," he said.

According to the CDC, high temperatures can lead to heart and lung complications, renal failure and kidney stones, and can even impact fetal health and lead to preterm birth.

Every year in the U.S., the heat causes an average of more than 700 deaths, more than 67,500 emergency department visits and more than 9,200 hospitalizations. Those who are Black or Native American have the highest rates of death, according to CDC tracking from 2004 to 2018.

Yoon has seen these health issues in New York, where she specifically researches the social inequities associated with extreme heat. She said that areas with more extreme heat tend to see the most heat-related deaths and illnesses, and also tend to be communities with lower income that are historically redlined.

Even in neighborhoods where the heat difference isn't necessarily drastic, the impact can be more intense because there are fewer buffers. On the Upper East Side, for example, Yoon found that more people are likely to have climate-controlled homes or offices and have jobs consistent with good quality health care.

That's not the case just a few miles away in the Bronx.

"People are supposed to seek refuge from the heat indoors," Yoon said. "But if you live in dilapidated housing or public housing, they're notorious for their lack of cooling infrastructure. You just have nowhere to go, so extreme heat becomes even more of a problem."

Most of those who live in the Bronx are people of color, according to the U.S. Census, and the issues the borough experiences with heat echo those in similar communities nationwide.

Brosnan said that areas of lower socioeconomic status and higher populations of people of color usually have "significantly higher" heat indexes. They also usually have more air pollution, fewer green spaces, are often closer to traffic or factories, and have less cooling infrastructure.

"If you're a single mother, if you're from a minority race, you are more likely to experience heat stress and to be affected by extreme heat or heat waves than people in more affluent or larger percentage White areas," she said. "And that's the real issue, is that the impact of rising temperatures is borne disproportionately by the poor and minorities and those who can least afford to pay for them."

Since 1970, 96% of the 246 locations analyzed by Climate Central have seen increases in their average summer temperatures.

"Now versus just 50, 60 years ago," Hoffman said, "our summers are much hotter, much more intense."

The hotter temperatures are not just a danger to public health, but to infrastructure as well, he said. It's particularly noticeable in regions that were historically cooler but over the past few years have been sweltering under unprecedented heat.

"There is a very high level of danger right now, for vulnerable groups in particular," Weather Channel meteorologist Carl Parker told CBS News.

When last year's Pacific Northwest heat wave hit, he said as an example, only two-thirds of households in the region had air conditioning. As of 2020, 12% of U.S. households didn't have air conditioning, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and of those who do, just 66% have central AC.

Described by the National Weather Service as "oppressive and unprecedented heat," the wave brought record-breaking temperatures to the region, resulting in buckled highways and numerous deaths.

That area was among many that experienced yet another deadly surge in heat this summer.

"Now, suddenly, you're looking at days on end with temperatures above 100 degrees," Parker said. "That's when it gets really dangerous, when you don't have this sort of built-in infrastructure. And then even when you do have this infrastructure, sometimes it will fail."

"Roads begin to buckle," Hoffman said. "Airlines can't operate because they're unable to take off in such warm air."

"We see things like rolling blackouts," he added, "because so many people are needing to push their air conditioning beyond what they're kind of used to dealing with."

And when the infrastructure crumbles, it only compounds on the existing issues, Zaitchik said, pointing to last August's deadly Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm that trampled numerous states.

"When you look at New Orleans, where it hit landfall, the heat killed more people than the storm itself," he said, "because the storm knocked out power and then it got really hot and then people died."

The past few years have shown that excessive heat is a nationwide — and global — issue. Utah residents recently had more than two weeks straight of triple-digit temperatures, and last month, the U.K. hit its hottest day on record at more than 104ºF.

"No city is immune to this," Yoon said. "...It's becoming more of a problem. One, temperatures are getting hotter, but two, more and more people are congregating in urban centers. So, it's becoming more of an issue everywhere."

Parker told CBS News that by mid-century, major cities such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tampa and New Orleans, will see a month or more with heat index values of 105ºF or greater. That's less than 30 years from now. And these urban areas, where the heat is most intense, are only growing.

"As bad as it will be, in general, it's going to be that much worse in these urban areas. … By the middle of the century, somewhere between 60 and 70% of the world's population will be in urban areas," Parker said. "… And that's gonna mean a lot of dangerous weather for millions and millions of people."

Population density will only add to the heat. And a recent report by the nonprofit research firm First Street Foundation found that a "heat belt" will soon emerge in the U.S., stretching from the Gulf Coast to Chicago and encompassing nearly one-third of U.S. adults.

"We're already operating on a knife's edge in a lot of ways," Parker said. "... So the big question will be adaptation — do city planners really start thinking about what they need to do to make cities more livable as temperatures are rising?"

This image shows how the temperature can differ between rural, industrial, downtown, park and suburban areas on the same day. CLIMATE CENTRAL