Features

PHOENIX — What happens to the body when a human gets heatstroke? How can we protect ourselves in a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, Arizona researchers have deployed a robot that can breathe, shiver and sweat.

The southwestern state’s capital Phoenix is currently enduring its longest heat wave in history: on Friday, the mercury exceeded 43ºC for the 22nd day in a row, an ominous demonstration of what’s to come in a world impacted by climate change.

For humans, such heat represents a potentially lethal threat, one that is still not fully understood. But for ANDI — a one-of-a-kind humanoid robot at Arizona State University — it’s a lovely day out.

“He’s the world’s first outdoor thermal mannequin that we can routinely take outside and ... measure how much heat he is receiving from the environment,” mechanical engineering Professor Konrad Rykaczewski told AFP. 

ANDI is “a very realistic way to experimentally measure how a human person responds to extreme climate” without putting people themselves at risk, Rykaczewski says. 

At first glance, ANDI — which stands for Advanced Newton Dynamic Instrument — resembles a simple crash-test dummy. 

But its epoxy/carbon fibre skin conceals a treasure trove of technology, such as a network of connected sensors that assess heat diffused through the body. 

ANDI also has an internal cooling system and pores allowing it to breathe and sweat. There are 35 independent thermal zones and, like humans, the robot — which cost more than half a million dollars to build — sweats more from its back.

Until now, only a dozen or so mannequins of this type existed, and none of them could venture outdoors. 

They were mainly used by sports equipment manufacturers to test their technical clothing in thermal chambers. 

Researchers hope the robot will provide a better understanding of hyperthermia — that is, when a body overheats, a condition that is threatening a growing proportion of the world’s population as a result of global warming. 

For obvious ethical reasons, “nobody measures core temperature increase while somebody’s getting heatstroke”, says Rykaczewski. But the effects of heat on the human body are still not fully comprehended. ANDI gives researchers a chance to understand.

Accompanied by MaRTy (Mean Radiant Temperature), a mobile weather station that measures the heat reflected by the buildings around it, the robot is taking its first steps outside in Phoenix — an ideal laboratory in which to prepare for tomorrow’s climate.

“How do we change what we wear? How do we change our behavioural patterns, and adjust them to temperatures that are of this order of magnitude?” says Rykaczewski.

Andi is also infinitely reprogrammable. The research team can make “digital twins of the mannequin to look at different segments of the population”, explains Jennifer Vanos, a climatologist involved in the project. 

For example, the older you get, the less you sweat. Young people will need different protection from athletes or people in poor health. With ANDI, scientists can simulate the thermoregulatory mechanisms specific to each individual.

They can also test the robot in a variety of situations. For example, Phoenix is dry — what about humid heat? How does the human body cope in hot winds? 

Their research will be useful for designing heat-resistant clothing, rethinking urban planning and protecting the most vulnerable.

In Phoenix, which opens dozens of cooling centres for the homeless every summer, their findings could guide the actions of social workers. 

“How long should a person stay in a cooling centre to cool off, so that their core temperature goes down to a level that’s safe again? We can answer that question with Andi,” says Vanos. 

The team also dreams of developing low-cost sensors to be used on building sites to adjust working hours according to the heat actually felt on site and the health of the workers — rather than based on general weather conditions. 

That could be a “step towards better safety than just these blank recommendations per city, per state, per country”, Rykaczewski says.

Such specific, tailored solutions could have global impacts, redrawing entire cities.

“If the future of Paris looks like Phoenix now, we can learn a lot about how do we design buildings,” says Rykaczewski.

PARIS — A vast area at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean earmarked for controversial deep sea mineral mining is home to thousands of species unknown to science and more complex than previously understood, according to several new studies.

Miners are eyeing an abyssal plain stretching between Hawaii and Mexico, known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), for the rock-like “nodules” scattered across the seafloor that contain minerals used in clean energy technologies like electric car batteries.

The lightless ocean deep was once considered a virtual underwater desert, but as mining interest has grown scientists have scoured the region exploring its biodiversity, with much of the data over the last decade coming from commercially-funded expeditions. 

And the more they look the more they have found, from a giant sea cucumber dubbed the “gummy squirrel” and a shrimp with a set of elongated bristly legs, to the many different tiny worms, crustaceans and mollusks living in the mud.

That has intensified concerns about controversial proposals to mine the deep sea, with the International Seabed Authority on Friday agreeing a two-year roadmap for the adoption of deep sea mining regulations, despite conservationists’ calls for a moratorium.

Abyssal plains over 3 kilometres underwater cover more than half of the planet, but we still know surprisingly little about them.

They are the “last frontier”, said marine biologist Erik Simon-Lledo, who led research published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution that mapped the distribution of animals in the CCZ and found a more complex set of communities than previously thought. 

“Every time we do a new dive we see something new,” said Simon-Lledo, of Britain’s National Oceanography Centre. 

Campaigners say this biodiversity is the true treasure of the deep sea and warn that mining would pose a major threat by churning up huge plumes of previously-undisturbed sediment. 

The nodules themselves are also a unique habitat for specialised creatures. 

“With the science as it is at the present day, there is no circumstance under which we would support mining of the seabed,” said Sophie Benbow of the NGO Fauna and Flora. 

The Clarion-Clipperton zone has both its age and its size to thank for the unique animals discovered there, scientists say.

The region is “mind-bogglingly vast”, said Adrian Glover, of Britain’s Natural History Museum, a co-author both on the study with Simon-Lledo and on the first full stocktake of species in the region published in Current Biology in May. 

That study found that more than 90 per cent of species recorded in the CCZ — some 5,000 species — are new to science. 

The region, which was considered to be essentially barren before an increase in exploration in the 1970s, is now thought to have a slightly higher diversity than the Indian Ocean, said Glover.

He said sediment sampling devices from the region might only capture 20 specimens each time — compared to maybe 20,000 in a similar sample in the Antarctic — but that in the CCZ you have to go much further to find the same creature twice. 

Scientists are now also able to use autonomous underwater vehicles to survey the seabed. 

These are what helped Simon-Lledo and his colleagues find that corals and brittlestars are common in shallower eastern CCZ regions, but virtually absent in deeper areas, where you see more sea cucumbers, glass sponges and soft-bodied anemones. 

He said any future mining regulations would have to take into account that the spread of animals across the area is “more complex than we thought”.

The nodules likely started as a shard of hard surface — a shark tooth or a fish ear bone — that settled on the seabed and slowly grew by attracting minerals that naturally occur in the water at extremely low concentrations, Glover said.

Each one is likely millions of years in the making. 

The area is also “food poor”, meaning fewer dead organisms drift down to the depths to eventually become part of the seafloor mud. Glover said parts of the CCZ add just a centimetre of sediment per thousand years.

Unlike the North Sea, formed from the last ice age that ended 20,000 years ago, the CCZ is ancient. 

“The abyssal plain of the Pacific Ocean has been like that for tens of millions of years — a cold dark abyssal plain with low sedimentation rates and life there,” Glover said. 

Because of this, the environment impacted by any mining would be unlikely to recover in human timescales.

“You are basically writing that ecosystem off for probably centuries, maybe thousands of years, because the rate of recovery is so slow,” said Michael Norton, environment programme director, the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council. 

“It’s difficult to argue that that is not serious harm.”

SAN FRANCISCO — After a wildly successful first few days, Threads popularity has waned in the weeks since Meta launched its challenge to Twitter, which lives on despite its problems.

The average amount of time people spend on Threads daily has plummeted more than 75 per cent since the platform made a rock star debut on July 6, according to data from Sensor Tower, a market analysis firm.

Threads was quickly billed as a potential death knell for Twitter, a platform that has tumbled into chaos under the leadership of mercurial tycoon Elon Musk.

The launch saw sign-ups of more than 100 million users in less than five days, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app and creating relief and excitement amongst early adopters fleeing Twitter.

“I actually closed down my Twitter account after starting Threads,” said Brooklyn resident Lauren Brose, head of marketing at a tech start-up.

“I used to love Twitter. After Elon Musk took over Twitter, I found that the entire environment just changed completely.”

But weeks later, Threads has since seen a “material decline in new sign-ups”, Sensor Tower said.

Twitter continues to dominate its space as a platform for online comment and news, and Musk “would have to completely destroy it” to drive away its audience for good, according to Silicon Valley investor and analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

“Will Threads kill Twitter? Absolutely not. It’s just not equivalent”, he said.

Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at its launch, though it is not available in Europe because parent company Meta is unsure how to navigate the European Union’s data privacy legislation.

Twitter is thought to have around 200 million regular users but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Tesla tycoon Musk bought the platform last year and sacked much of its staff.

Musk, also the boss of SpaceX, has alienated users by introducing charges for previously free services and allowing banned right-wing accounts back on the platform.

There is little doubt that Threads had a major leg up compared to other wannabe Twitter alternatives. 

Several rivals have emerged but most are niche platforms without the capacity to grow at the necessary scale to dethrone Twitter.

But Meta was able to easily prompt Instagram users to start Threads accounts, tapping into a base of at least a billion users at the image-focused social network.

Not about news?

Threads has a lot to prove, and features to add, to become a formidable Twitter alternative, according to Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

It needs to foster creators to engage users, and to find its own identity separate from Instagram and Twitter, Enberg said. 

“Given that Twitter is in a state of disarray, the brilliant move that they did was using the existing social graph from Instagram for rapid and seamless adoption,” Owyang said of Threads.

The downside is that’s not the user base “that you want to have chats with or to do microblogging”, he added.

Instagram users typically engage with the service for images or videos, not commentary or controversy, Owyang noted.

“It is a very different crowd on Instagram,” Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said of a comparison to Threads.

Twitter is known as a forum for news and politics, topics that Threads has no interest in spotlighting, according to a recent post by Threads and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.

Meanwhile, Twitter is seen as an established home for posts by journalists, celebrities, athletes, politicians and others.

Another roadblock to Threads growth is that Meta is holding it back from the European Union, Milanesi said.

While people frustrated with Musk-owned Twitter are seeking alternatives, no single competitor has established itself as the ideal option.

Twitter quitters have become a “diaspora” of sorts, spread across Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and other platforms in search of a new social media home, Owyang reasoned.

“Many people have left Twitter, and that will continue,” Owyang said.

“But the issue is where are they going? There’s no one centralised place to go.”

The Threads app has been downloaded more than 184 million times globally since its launch, according to Data.ai Intelligence.

“But, the app hasn’t proved to be materially different from Twitter in terms of features/functionality,” said Sensor Tower senior insights analyst Abe Yousef.

LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” conquered North American box offices in its debut weekend as it raked in a stunning $155 million, while the other half of the movie-going event of the summer, the dark biopic “Oppenheimer”, also scored big with $80.5 million in revenue, industry Estimates reported on Sunday.

Legions of pink-clad moviegoers swarmed theatres to give “Barbie” the biggest opening weekend of any film this year — and the biggest ever for a female director — said industry monitor Exhibitor Relations. 

The much-anticipated “Barbenheimer” cinematic weekend, during which “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” were both released, spurred hundreds of thousands of people to take in both flicks, organising their own double features.

The coincidental same-day release of the two starkly different but highly anticipated films — one following an iconic doll ready to paint the world pink and the other about the scientist who helped invent the atomic bomb — created a bottom-up pop-culture phenomenon that transcended the individual marketing for either.

Together, they also provided a shot in the arm for theatres hit hard by the pandemic as well as the rise of streaming services.

“The subtext of the joke of ‘Barbenheimer’ is that these couldn’t be two more different movies,” David A. Gross, of Franchise Entertainment Research, told AFP.

At the same time, he added, “The movie industry has a very healthy record of accommodating two big pictures. Moviegoers go when there are hot movies.”

In a Sunday note, Gross wrote that the opening for “Barbie” was “record-shattering”.

“No comedic film of any kind has opened higher than $85.9m over a 3-day weekend,” he wrote.

“Barbie has become what we call a zeitgeist movie. It seems to be hitting a chord,” he told AFP.

“Oppenheimer,” for its part, saw a “superb opening”, Gross wrote. 

DIY double features

According to industry estimates, some 200,000 people were thought to have purchased tickets to both films on the same day.

Emma McNealy, 35, was one of them.

“I had heard online people were planning to do it and it sounded funny to me,” the account manager told AFP. “At first I wasn’t planning to because I didn’t feel like anyone else would want to spend the whole day doing this for the bit, but luckily a friend was in.”

While both films fuelled interest in the other, it was “Barbie” that pulled her in to try the double feature.

“I am sure I would have watched [‘Oppenheimer’] eventually, but not on opening weekend,” she said. “I think a lot of women like that a Barbie is getting more layers in this telling, it’s not just candy-coated fluff.”

Millions more were likely to catch both films on separate days.

“This was a phenomenal experience for people who love movies on the big screen,” president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners Michael O’Leary said in a statement Sunday. 

“It was a truly historic weekend.”

The “Barbenheimer” films together left a massive gulf between the weekend’s top two box office spots and the number three slot, occupied by “Sound of Freedom”.

The controversial action thriller from Santa Fe Films and Angel Studios, which critics say plays into QAnon conspiracy theories, brought in $20.14 million.

Fourth and fifth place saw the sort of franchise sequels that have come to dominate box office recently. 

Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” the latest in the long-running series starring Tom Cruise, brought in $19.5 million.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, from Disney, brought in $6.7 million. This “Indy” episode, likely the last, again stars Harrison Ford as a whip-cracking archaeologist.

Rounding out the top 10 were “Insidious: The Red Door” ($6.5 million), “Elemental” ($5.8 million), “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($2.8 million), “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” ($1.12 million) and “No Hard Feelings” ($1.07 million).

Combining class and convenience with desirability, driving dynamics and devastating performance, the compact super saloon is a traditionally German-dominated segment that brilliantly bridged the gap between emotional and engaging sports cars and executive saloons. 

It is, however, a segment that is quickly nearing extinction with the rise of soulless electrification and ever-growing popularity of clumsy crossovers. That said, three of the finest, most visceral, powerful and last devoutly petrol-headed examples have come not from Germany, but Italy, the UK and the US.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA

Quite possibly the finest super saloon of its era, the inimitable Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio delivered a beguiling recipe of seductive style, dynamic prowess, explosive performance and optional driver involving three-pedal 6-speed manual gearbox when first launched in 2015. Since then, the Italian manufacturer has upped the ante with the even more extreme Quadrifoglio GTA and GTAm iterations of its sublime super saloon, inspired by the iconic 1965 Giulia GTA.

Unveiled for Alfa’s 110th anniversary in 2020 and launched a year later with just 500 examples promised, the Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA may still listed as current model, but will certainly be remembered as Alfa’s last great car, when electrification and crossovers gain dominance. Powered by a 30BHP more powerful version of its standard super saloon sister’s Ferrari-developed 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, the GTA produces 533BHP at 6,500rpm and 443lb/ft torque at just 2,500rpm.

Scintillatingly swift with its reduced 3.8-second 0-100km/h acceleration time and 300km/ top speed, the GTA incorporates more lightweight materials for a 100kg reduction, and improved suspension set-up and aggressive air flow management for better agility, handling, road-holding and stability. The even lighter and more hardcore track-focused but still street-legal GTAm meanwhile gains a large rear wing, roll cage in place of the rear seats, and 6-point harness front race seats.

Specifications

Engine: 2.9-litre, twin-turbocharged V6-cylinders

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip rear differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 533 (540) [397] @6,500

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 443 (600) @2,500

0-97km/h: 3.8-seconds

Top speed: 300km/h

Length: 4,669mm

Width: 1,923mm

Height: 1,445mm

Wheelbase: 2,820mm

Weight: 1,605kg

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbone/multi-link, adaptive dampers

Tyres, F/R: 265/30R20/285/30R20

Jaguar XE SV Project 8

Stylish and sporty with perky performance and playfully wayward but intuitively balanced handling even in entry-level variants, the Jaguar XE was meant to take on the German-dominated compact executive saloon segment head-on. Failing to yield exponential sales growth for Jaguar in the premium segment, the XE will partly be remembered as a delightful car that should have done much better, when Jaguar becomes a fully electrified and more luxury-oriented manufacturer.

Skipping past mere XE super saloon status, the super “duper” SV Project 8 variant — courtesy of Jaguar’s SVO skunkworks division — became the British manufacturer’s most powerful road car ever produced. Launched in 2015 and ostensibly set for a limited 300 car run — but still listed on some Jaguar websites — ­the wild and be-winged Project 8 is a compact brute that even outmuscles the legendary 1992-94 Jaguar XJ220 supercar.

Powered by a thuggish version of Jaguar’s glorious, growling and outgoing 5-litre supercharged V8 engine, the Project 8 develops a mighty 592BHP at 6,500rpm and 516lb/ft torque throughout 3,500-5,000rpm for devastatingly quick 3.7-second 0-100km/h acceleration, and a 322km/h top speed. Putting power down with a combination of agility and stability, the Project 8 incorporates lightweight carbon-fibre components, enhanced and adjustable suspension, an extensive and also adjustable aerodynamic kit, and all-wheel-drive.

Specifications

Engine: 5-litre, supercharged V8-cylinders

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive, electronic limited slip differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 592 (600) [441] @6,500rpm

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @3,500-5,000rpm

0-100km/h: 3.7-seconds

Top speed: 322km/h

Length: 4,713mm

Width: 1,954mm

Height: 1,436mm

Wheelbase: 2,835mm

Weight: 1,745kg

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbone/integral-link, adaptive dampers

Tyres, F/R: 265/35R20/305/30R20

Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing

With an aggressively sounding name that can’t but bring to mind a certain type of attack helicopter and notorious mercenary group, the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing is something of a brutalist riposte to slinkier and more svelte European super saloons. The most powerful version of Cadillac’s compact executive saloon, the Blackwing gains a more aggressive body kit with improved downforce, over the ‘garden variety’ CT4-V performance model.

Well complementing the basic CT4’s squinty headlights, sharp creases and complex surfacing that also includes vertical side lighting elements that pay homage to big Caddies of yesteryears, the Blackwing has a distinctly and muscularly American aesthetic quality. Nestled under a domed bonnet, the Blackwing is, meanwhile, powered by a powerful 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine, driving the rear wheels through an enthusiast-pleasing traditional 6-speed manual gearbox or sophisticated optional 10-speed automatic.

Introduced in 2021, the Blackwing produces 472BHP at 5,750rpm and 445lb/ft torque throughout 3,500-5,000rpm, to rocket through 0-97km/h in 4.1-seconds in manual guise, and 3.9-seconds with the optional auto. Topping out at 304km/h in either specification, the hefty, near 1.8-tonne Blackwing meanwhile features an electronic limited-slip rear differential to channel its muscular output for enhanced agility and stability, and adaptive magnetic dampers for improved body cornering control and comfort.

Specifications

Engine: 3.6-litre, twin-turbocharged V6-cylinders

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel-drive, electronic limited-slip differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 472 (479) [352] @5,750rpm

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 445 (603) @3,500-5,000rpm

0-97km/h: 4.1-seconds

Top speed: 304km/h

Length: 4,765mm

Width: 1,815mm

Height: 1,422mm

Wheelbase: 2,776mm

Weight: 1,751kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson strut/five-link, adaptive dampers

Tyres, F/R: 255/35R18/275/35R18

By Dr Tareq Rasheed
International Consultant and Trainer

Life is not as easy as we wish it to be; stress is always there in all stages of our lives. Kids suffer stress due to lots of homework, studying and exams. Teenagers face stress with their parents as they wish to push boundaries and do whatever they want with no restrictions.

Adults suffer from stress due to work, responsibilities and sometimes long working hours. Even retired people and senior citizens suffer from being sick or feeling lonely. This is life, but successful people always look at stress positively as a step towards success and even when facing very negative stress, they can create a life balance.

Managing stress

So, what are the secrets of managing stress? Stress is defined as a state of worry and mental tension-it’s a natural human response to life challenges. Some positive stress is highly needed to allow people to achieve positive results; this positive stress is related to passion and a desire to achieve. However, when facing difficult situations, negative stress may cause depression, worry and disturbance to life balance: Life Balance is a state of positiveness that helps you to live a healthy life with positive relationships. 

The ability to achieve balance and manage stress simultaneously need some practice and techniques to live a healthy positive life. These techniques include:

1. Time Management and Scheduling: One of the best practices to achieve life balance is to schedule your time. Having a weekly schedule is highly recommended; to work with a daily plan is one of the highest causes of negative stress; you start working to fulfil daily tasks, and in such instances, you are managed by tasks, rather than you managing them

A weekly schedule allows you to have a big picture of your tasks and by scheduling weekly, you are mastering and managing your schedule. 

Defining your relationships

There are five types of relationships: Personal, organisational, family, society and spiritual. You do not need to give equal time to each relation, but you should satisfy the required relation; otherwise, you will suffer high negative stress later. Give your work its time, but your family is the most important relationship to care about. Your friends and society are also part of relationships, these relationships will give you positive energy. So, invest in them. 

Your relationship with God is the most crucial relationship ; it does not take much time from your schedule daily, but will balance your life in the long haul. Of course, do not forget yourself. Include in the week time for yourself; time for self-development, rest and exercise.

2. Fight or Flight: Successful people will always choose confrontation than running away from their problems and negative relationships. Confronation may cause short-term stress, but you will feel positive afterwards. If you choose flight, you will suffer from lasting and long-term stress. Confront very hard situations and you will be able to manage in the long term

3. Self-Awareness: As you increase attuning to yourself and self-awareness, you will be able to conclude that life is too short to waste on negative emotions and stress. The most important thing is your health; we tend to forget ourselves and may face serious health problems. This is when you become aware that nothing in life is more important than your body and mental health

4. Emotional Intelligence: This is the ability to manage emotions positively and is one of the most critical factors for a healthy positive life. Emotional intelligence includes several skills: 

• The ability to manage negative emotions: The strongest negative emotions to manage are anger, depression, worry and boredom. If not managed, these negative emotions will cause negative stress that will impact you negatively in the long term

• Self- Motivation: Learn always to motivate yourself; speak positively with yourself, do not allow negative thoughts to start affecting you. Stop blaming yourself and you will find lots of positivity in your life 

• Motivating others: Be very sociable and learn to motivate others; your family, friends, relatives, colleagues and friends. This will really charge you with very positive energy

5. Setting Priorities: Once you define your priorities in life, you will be able to reduce stress. Always think of important and not urgent issues; your health, your development, strategic relations. At work try to think of the most strategic issues and delegate routine tasks to others, if possible 

6. Learning to say “NO!” What stresses some people is the inability to say no and always saying yes. Try to learn to say “no” to issues which are not important. Do not stress yourself with mundane issues just to satisfy others who may exploit you as being a “yes person”

7. Leading a healthy life through deep sleep, eating healthy food and exercising

A stressless life is impossible; this means carelessness, but being able to live the positive stress that allows us to achieve and proceed is the secret to success. If you manage your time and relationships, you will be able to manage negative stress in the long term.

Life is too short to waste without being goal-oriented. A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Life is a project that aims to create a result in this journey.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

PARIS — Record-breaking heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere have again sparked concerns about the danger such blistering temperatures pose to people’s health, particularly children and the elderly.

Such sustained heatwaves — which experts say are becoming more common due to human-driven climate change — can put human bodies under extreme pressure, sometimes leading to dehydration, heatstroke and death. 

Research recently found that more than 61,000 people died due to the heat in Europe last summer — and 2023 is shaping up to be even hotter.

The immediate effect

As temperatures rise, the body fights to maintain its normal temperature around 37ºC.

The heart ups the tempo, sending sweat to cool down the surface of the skin, the body’s front line against the heat.

The skin’s blood vessels also dilate, releasing heat.

The impact on health

But if the heat overwhelms these temperature regulators, it can cause symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, fever and disturbed sleep.

Another early sign is dehydration, which occurs when the body loses more fluids than it takes in.

Heatstroke, which strikes when the body cannot stop its temperature rising past 40ºC, is considered to be the most serious heat-related illness.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned that repeatedly high overnight minimum temperatures are particularly dangerous to human health, because the body never gets a chance to recover. 

Such high overnight minimums — which parts of the United States, Europe and China have been suffering through this week — can lead to heart attacks and death, according to the WMO.

“Whilst most of the attention focuses on daytime maximum temperatures, it is the overnight temperatures which have the biggest health risks, especially for vulnerable populations,” the UN agency said. 

The added threat of humidity

Humidity during heatwaves can also overwhelm the body.

Sweating helps cool bodies by evaporating off the skin — but if it is too humid, the sweat cannot evaporate. 

The combination of heat and humidity is measured by what is known as a “wet bulb” temperature.

Researchers have warned that a wet-bulb temperature of 35ºC can kill a healthy young adult within six hours.

This threshold of human survivability has only been reached a couple of times — but experts warn the number of instances will increase as the globe warms.

The most vulnerable

Most vulnerable during heatwaves are the elderly, people who already have health problems, and children — particularly those under five years old.

As people get older, they have fewer sweat glands, making the elderly less able to control their temperature.

During heatwaves, these sweat glands work day and night. 

After a few days, the sweat glands get exhausted and produce less sweat, increasing the body’s core temperature.

Most of the estimated 61,672 people who died due to the heat in Europe last summer were over the age of 80, according to research.

Other factors

Where people live and what they do can also put them more at risk during heatwaves.

Living in a city, particularly in densely populated areas or poorly insulated homes, can further expose people to the blistering heat.

People who work outside, such as construction workers, are also at an increased risk.

Those who play sports are doubly at risk because exercise also raises the body’s temperature.

The homeless are particularly exposed, having few ways to escape the heat. 

Some drugs can also add to health problems during heatwaves, such as diuretics which reduce the amount of water in the body.

What to do

During heatwaves people should drink plenty of water and try to stay as cool as possible.

Health authorities recommend people avoid going outside during the hottest part of the day — and if possible spend a couple of hours in a cool place, such as an air-conditioned cinema, library or museum.

They also advise people avoid physical exertion or drinking alcohol. 

And, because social isolation can be a factor, it is advisable to regularly check in with friends and family.

SAO PAULO — Lara Maia types on her laptop perched on a small desk occupying a gap between the fridge and wardrobe in her micro-apartment in Sao Paulo, Latin America’s most populated city.

Behind her, the bed also serves as the couch.

“I don’t need any more: I’m close to everything and I feel free to leave whenever I want with a few bags,” the 34-year-old computer scientist told AFP of the 16-square-metre apartment near downtown Sao Paulo.

Maia’s space on the 16th floor that serves as her home and occasional office is an example of a growing trend of apartments the size of hotel rooms.

Long a way of life in other large cities of the world, in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic capital, the boom has been a recent one.

From 2016 to 2022, available units up to 30 m2 soared from 461 units to 16,261, according to the state housing association Secovi-SP.

The number represents a fifth of all apartments in the city of 11.5 million residents.

Some, with furniture squeezed in as in a game of Tetris, or with the kitchen just inches from the bathroom, have become the subject of jokes on social media.

But this has done nothing to dampen demand, mainly among adults aged 20 to 39, according to a survey by real estate firm Quinto Andar. 

“They are young professionals; middle and upper-middle class, at the start of their careers, mostly single, attracted by modern and well-located properties close to jobs or public transport,” said Secovi-SP CEO Ely Wertheim.

Raised in a large house outside Sao Paulo, Maia told AFP she could get a bigger apartment in another neighbourhood for the same 2,300 reais (about $475) she pays in monthly rent.

But she is gladly giving up space to be closer to family and her job, presential part of the time.

At the end of a day working from home, Maia closes her laptop and prepares tea with toast in her only pan on an electric stove plate.

Then she wheels a small table from under her work desk and sits down to eat.

“In such a small space you learn to get rid of many things and to change your perception about what you need,” she said.

Meetings with friends take place on the terrace — a shared area that has become common in new apartment buildings and offers laundry and games rooms, coworking spaces and even areas for bathing pets.

Oscar Borghi, a 39-year-old engineer, has lived with his girlfriend since last year in a 28 m2 apartment with two rooms in the south of Sao Paulo, also near his work and a train station.

“We thought it would be small, but we are comfortable with the layout and spaces of the building,” he told AFP.

“When we are both working from home at the same time, one of us goes to the coworking space” in the building.

Rodger Campos, an economist with estate agency Loft, said Sao Paulo, the fifth largest city in the world, was similar to other giant metropoles like New York or Tokyo, where micro-apartments abound: “It has a high population density, global connection, and is a centre of work, health and education.”

The trend was further helped by a sharp drop in interest rates from 6.75 per cent in 2018 to about 2.0 per cent in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jose Armenio, who works in the city’s urbanism secretariat.

This meant it was easier to buy small apartments for letting purposes.

Another boost came from the city reducing tariff fees in 2014 for the construction of small apartments. 

The aim was accessible housing for less affluent people, in areas served by public transport. But the result has been the opposite.

“Apartments of up to 30-metres squared have the most expensive square meterage in the city”, said Campos.

The municipal council recently agreed to revise Sao Paulo’s city planning, making micro-apartment construction more expensive in a bid to create more social family housing.

PARIS — The world is about to be hit by a pink tsunami as “Barbie” — Hollywood’s ironic new take on the doll feminists once loved to hate — opens with a vast marketing campaign.

Not even an actors’ and writers’ strike has been able to put brakes on the juggernaut, with the first images of stars Margot Robbie as Barbie, and Ryan Gosling as her square-jawed boyfriend Ken, sending social media into a frenzy of fuchsia.

With the movie hitting big screens across Europe from Wednesday, and North America from Friday, expectation is building at how director and indie film darling Greta Gerwig has tackled the most flagrant of corporate product-placement vehicles.

Many were surprised that the acclaimed feminist maker of “Little Women”, “Lady Bird” and “Frances Ha” would be tempted to take on a doll whose body is said to be so unrealistic she would not be able to walk if she were a real woman.

But already in the trailer, it is clear Gerwig’s take on Barbie is nothing if not tongue in cheek.

After a few perfect “life in plastic” days with the other Barbies in their bubblegum Californian world, she has her heroine kick off her high heels to put on a pair of sensible Birkenstock sandals to leave Barbie Land behind and plunge into the real world.

With Ryan Gosling camping it up as a breezily sexist Ken barechested under a fur coat, the two go AWOL, to the horror of toymaker Mattel.

“If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,” the trailer proclaims.

“The movie is packing so much in,” Robbie told AFP on the pink carpet of the London premiere.

‘Full of controversy’

“There is so much joy, it’s hilarious, it’s very clever and it has a lot to say,” said the Australian actress, who is also one of the film’s producers. “It’s a crazy ride and a visual spectacle. I cannot think of another movie that is like it.” 

While critics say Barbie has brainwashed generations of young girls with an unattainable ideal of beauty and thinness, others see her as a figure of female emancipation through figures like Astronaut Barbie and Barbie the surgeon. 

Gerwig, 39, said her approach to tackling Barbie was “by not denying that she’s full of controversy.

“In some ways Barbie has been ahead of culture, in some ways she has been behind it,” she told AFP. “But she has definitely been a topic of conversation for 64 years.”

Chinese-born Simu Liu, who plays one of the many Kens in the movie, said he admired how Gerwig “doesn’t shy away from some of the criticisms of Barbie, some of the very valid criticisms of body image and of diversity... but still wraps it in an era of optimism and hope”.

Issa Rae, of “Awkward Black Girl” fame, who plays one of the Barbies, said despite all the “negative associations”, for her Barbie went back to core memories of her childhood. 

Girl power makeover

“I think about telling stories with Barbies, making Barbies kiss and thinking about all the different questions I had about life, posing that onto Barbie,” she told AFP. “So people are very protective of her in that way.”

Gerwig — who wrote her first hits about New York life with her partner, “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach — is next to take on another childhood cultural colossus by adapting the “Chronicles of Narnia” for Netflix.

While Barbie’s makers Mattel seemed happy to be cast as cartoon baddies in the trailer for the film, they are counting on the blockbuster giving their lodestar toy some “girl power” cred as she challenges the patriarchy.

But behind Barbie’s Dayglo optimism, the turnover of Mattel’s dolls division fell by nine per cent last year. 

And the old sexist stereotypes have not been easy to airbrush away. Uniformly blonde and white for decades, Barbie has been going through a huge makeover since 2016 with 175 different models reflecting different colours and body types — “curvy, tall and petite” — as well as dolls with physical disabilities.