Wearing a Canada Goose puffer jacket isn’t just a fashion statement; The coats are filled with goose down which helps trap and retain body heat when temperatures drop. But the engineers University of Massachusetts Amherst They took inspiration from another animal that calls Canada home, and it’s here now Create a new insulating fabric Copies how polar bears can survive extreme cold.
It is easy to tell a polar bear from a grizzly bear thanks to their white coats of fur. But this fur isn’t just for camouflage against the frozen tundra. A polar bear’s fur doesn’t look much thicker than what you’d find on other bears, but somehow it allows them to easily withstand Arctic temperatures down to -50 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s only in the past few decades that researchers have studied the animals to finally discover how.
If you’ve ever stepped into the summer heat in a black T-shirt, you know how easily it absorbs the sun’s rays. But the white polar bear’s fur, which is actually hollow, is better at absorbing the sun. This is because it works like a natural optical fiber, directing sunlight towards the bear’s body. The black polar bear’s skin then absorbs sunlight, helping its body to capture as much warmth as possible, as the fur then pulls double duty as an excellent insulator. Turns out, the same hollow fibers that are so good at catching sunlight are terrible thermal conductors, meaning the heat energy collected stays where it’s needed and doesn’t radiate far from the animal.
To recreate this excellent approach to insulation in something humans can wear, University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers have created a new fabric with layers that specifically recreate elements of a polar bear’s body. The base layer is made of nylon coated with a polymer known as pedot, which has excellent heat retention properties. Meanwhile, the top layer is covered with translucent polypropylene yarns that help conduct visible light – whether from the sun or artificial indoor lighting – towards the nylon base layer to warm it.
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Engineers claim that a jacket made of the material they’ve made will be “30 percent lighter than the same jacket made of cotton” while still feeling comfortable in the minus 10 degrees Celsius a cotton jacket can handle—bulky you’re not sitting in the dark, because The heating properties of a material depend entirely on harnessing light.
However, the material can be paired with other insulators to provide all-day warmth, and we won’t have to wait long to see how it will be used in commercial products. Although A.S Only the paper detailing the research has been published Just last week, a company called Solyarn Production of the new material has already begun, so it may not be long before the Canada Goose coat is replaced by the Canadian Polar Bear jacket.