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| BBC News 25th December 2023 |
By Michael Bristow & Kathryn Armstrong
More than 300 hours of below-freezing temperatures have already been recorded in Beijing this month
The Chinese capital, Beijing, has experienced its coldest December since records began in 1951.
Nature reports on Chairman Xi's latest climate crisis response:
POLAR BEAR INSPIRED SWEATER IS THINNER THAN A DOWN JACKET—AND TWICE AS WARM
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UN PULL OURS POLAIRE
TRES GRANDE PRÊT À
PORTER S'IL VOUS PLAÎT |
By Gemma ConroyA sweater knitted from a fibre that mimics polar bear fur offers as much warmth as a down jacket, despite being one-fifth as thick, according to a study published today in Science.
The fibre — made from a light, synthetic material known as an aerogel —… fibres made from aerogels are often too brittle and fragile to be weaved into wearable textiles, and they tend to lose their insulating properties after washing and in humid environments… says study co-author Weiwei Gao, a materials scientist at Zhejiang University in China.
POROUS CORE
So the researchers looked to polar bear fur for inspiration. The core of each strand of this fur has dozens of tiny pockets of air that prevent heat from conducting away, keeping the bears warm in the harsh Arctic environment. This porous core is surrounded by a dense outer shell that is waterproof, flexible and tough. The approach for creating the fibre is currently too slow and energy-intensive to be scaled up for mass production. But says study co-author Hao Bai, a materials scientist at Zhejiang University. “We are planning to improve its scalability,”
