Futuristic fashions

by Lisa Cardy

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IF you want to be cool this summer then a new invention from Australia is just the thing you're looking for. Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Csiro) and Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) have developed a vest that keeps you cool whatever the weather.

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The futuristic looking black shiny vest is fitted with a network of tubes and cavities for channelling heat away from the body. The tubes and cavities contain vapour, which absorbs the heat, and transfer it via a vent into the atmosphere. The vent is fitted with a heat exchanger that helps draw out the heat through the tubes and cavities.

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One of the vests developers, Dr Bandopadhayay, compared the way the heat exchanger works with a make shift cooler that campers often construct when in the outback, called a 'bush fridge'. The improvised cooler works when a cold damp cloth is laid across a container, which draws heat away and allows food inside to cool down.

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The creators of the vest are now looking for financial backers to help take the product to the market place.

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It's thought that the emergency services will be very interested in the invention. In normal protective clothing, firefighters and emergency workers can only spend a limited amount of time close to the source of a fire because sweat, which is produced by the body as a means of removing heat, cannot escape. Tests show that by wearing the vest with protective clothing firefighters are able to survive in dangerously hot conditions for up to for times longer.

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Additionally, the vest can help soldiers stay cool inside their nuclear, biological and chemical attack suits for four hours, instead of the usual limit of sixty minutes.