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Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

fastcompany.com

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Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#71

Post by deaddodo »

crucialfelix wrote: post #42
midasz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come specifically American, and how'd you reach that conclusion from glancing at the site? A huge number of people speak English as a second language. Usually the notation follows the number, so it's kind of lazy to just say it's written for americans specifically - moreso as a counter to someone saying it's Farenheit instead of Celcius since I also clicked immediately thinking how is that possible.

Every website clearly states what country it's in and who the target audience is. Except if it doesn't, in which case you know it's the Americans.

Please point to where in this article they mention this is written from/for France:

https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2024/06/22/legislat...

Explicitly, not in the form of contextual clues (their domain name and language).

Correct, they do not. As the vast majority of published articles do not.

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#72

Post by btilly »

mrcartmeneses wrote: post #68
btilly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am concerned about all kinds of nanowires. If they are sufficiently strong, they should be able to damage your lungs in the exact same way that asbestos does. Not through a chemical reaction, but a mechanical process that damages cells. The damage makes it easier to mutate. Which creates a long-term potential for cancer. Silver nanowires should not be as strong as carbon nanotubes. But are they stronger than cell w…

Do you mean cell membranes? Animals such as humans do not have cell walls outside of their cell membranes like many bacteria, plants, fungi etc.

I do, thanks for the correction.

Asbestos gets into our lungs, winds up poking us, and does a lot of damage on the way out. If it ever gets out. Some fibers can get stuck for years.

It's entirely mechanical. Any strong enough fiber of a similar size and shape will create the same class of problems.

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#73

Post by gpvos »

deaddodo wrote: post #13
vermilingua wrote: post #6

I feel like the title should qualify that this is 16degF

The article was written for an American audience. I feel like if you went to a French article and it said "12 degrees" you would know to convert that to Fahrenheit, if you needed. And that's an even less common situation than second-language English speakers ending up on American articles.

Maybe it is, but HN has a broader audience and the title loses context when used here.

(Also, I think Fastco should realize that they're being read by English readers all over the world who only know Celsius, but I guess they do measure their audience.)

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#75

Post by mensetmanusman »

OutOfHere wrote: post #2

There have been a lot of such materials over the years, but for some strange reason, none of them ever gets commercialized. We could have been using them all over the place, on all surfaces that expose to sunlight, but they're nowhere to be found.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/energy-conservation-us/applicati...

3M sells them for grocery store roofs in the US.

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#77

Post by thorgrimr »

I wonder how it fares actually cooling the body. Does the fabric also block heat coming from the body wearing it?

Has anyone information on the fabric that was able to cool the body that Ars covered? https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/new-fabric-passively...

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#78

Post by throwaway290 »

btilly wrote: post #72
mrcartmeneses wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean cell membranes? Animals such as humans do not have cell walls outside of their cell membranes like many bacteria, plants, fungi etc.

I do, thanks for the correction. Asbestos gets into our lungs, winds up poking us, and does a lot of damage on the way out. If it ever gets out. Some fibers can get stuck for years. It's entirely mechanical. Any strong enough fiber of a similar size and shape will create the same class of problems.

Do you know any way of testing for asbestos at home (outside of US so can't send a sample anywhere and don't know any labs in the area if there even are any)?

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#79

Post by throwaway290 »

freedomben wrote: post #15
OutOfHere wrote: post #2

There have been a lot of such materials over the years, but for some strange reason, none of them ever gets commercialized. We could have been using them all over the place, on all surfaces that expose to sunlight, but they're nowhere to be found.

From the things I've seen, it almost always comes down to IP issues clashing with economic realities. The person holding the rights either can't get it done and/or won't license it to people who can (at economically viable rates), so it languishes. It's especially frustrating since the whole IP system was supposed to encourage innovation.

Can you tell more about the things you've seen?

If no one offers enough money, perhaps their research found it's just a bunch of hot air and not actually a viable design.

Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees

#80

Post by throwaway290 »

OutOfHere wrote: post #14
VygmraMGVl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also probably a skin and lung irritant. Lots of people have contact allergies to macroscale silver and nanowires tend to get embedded in cells in soft tissue.

Regarding nanowires, for what it's worth, nano silver is used as a highly effective antimicrobial skin cream, and none of its users complain of an allergy. In this way it also accelerates wound healing. It is even more benign than some skin antibiotics that trigger an allergy. Given this evidence, I don't think nanoscale use of silver in clothing is going to be a a concern for the vast majority of people. Disclaimer:…

I think the concern is about when the clothing starts falling apart and nanowires end up in the air of your room and eventually your lungs/stomach, like nanoplastics cross into tissue and individual cells, accumulate, turn up in sperm/placenta etc.
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