While it might look like part of a superhero’s costume, the spongy silver jacket that David Pascoe is holding is actually part of a research project in Auburn University’s Thermal Laboratory. Pascoe is a Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor of exercise physiology in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology. In his lab at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, he studies thermal physiology, which involves body temperature and temperature regulation.

Temperature regulation is crucial to our survival, Pascoe said, because we actually live on a continuum between death and death. “If you get too hot, you die. If you get too cold, you die,” he said. “And as a result, our body really tightly regulates us in a very small but important survival zone.”
           
According to Pascoe, a lot can be learned by studying the body’s core temperature and the different ways humans regulate that temperature. Parameters such as the type of clothing one wears or other environmental factors all affect thermoregulation. “Unlike most of my colleagues who study thermal regulation, my students and I are looking at how the body regulates to the various temperatures,” Pascoe said. “We try to look at the influence clothing might have on that so we’ve looked at different materials and clothing to see how we could best temperature-regulate in a work setting and in an athletic setting.”
           
That’s where the shiny jacket comes in. Made from a material called Aluminet, which was originally designed to regulate turf temperatures on golf courses, Pascoe and his team in the thermal lab are finding new applications for the space-age-looking material. This past fall, Pascoe’s research was utilized by members of Auburn’s football team who wore capes made from Aluminet on the sidelines to stay cool when they weren’t in action on the field.
           
Pascoe said the material blocks about 50 percent of radiant heat. “So we’re blocking 50 percent of that sunlight from coming in and providing heat,” he said. “And its properties can actually change some of the air flow that is around the individual or animal that is going to use it.” By adding a little water or a light mist, the material is even more effective at keeping those who wear it cool. Pascoe is now looking at applying the material to animals.

“I find animal and human temperature regulation are similar in a lot of ways and we can really learn from both,” he said. In fact, after his success with Aluminet on the football field, Pascoe introduced the material to Auburn University’s Raptor Center. Trainers at the center drape the material over bird cages to keep the temperature inside the cage cooler. This method has been particularly helpful in keeping eagles cool before their pre-game flights at Jordan-Hare Stadium during football season.  

Apart from his work with Aluminet, Pascoe does research using an infrared thermography machine. “It detects the heat that the body or any object gives off,” he said. Because the equipment is non-contact and non-invasive, it allows Pascoe to quickly obtain a digital image of a person’s body temperature.

Pascoe said the technology is becoming increasingly instrumental in helping to stop the spread of pandemic diseases, like the recent outbreak of H1N1 or “swine flu.” By installing infrared thermography scanners at areas such as airports that see thousands of people everyday from many different locations, officials are able to quickly determine who might be carrying a disease by noting core body temperatures.

“There are some strains of disease that actually show up with a fever so this temperature, which we call a febrile temperature, is an indicator of a diseased state,” he said. Pascoe said individuals who record higher than normal core body temperatures would then be sent for a secondary screening to determine whether their febrile temperature was the result of a pandemic disease, another physiological condition or just heavy activity, like racing through the airport to catch a flight. “A secondary screening might include another method of measuring core temperature to try to determine if they had a fever and whether this fever was related to a pandemic outbreak symptom or not.”

While thermography screening does prove to be a great way to isolate individuals with elevated temperatures, Pascoe said it is not a foolproof method for eliminating the spread of disease. “With the current pandemic there is some concern because there is a portion of the period in which I can be carrying the disease and I may not have had a temperature and that’s unlike some of what we see with SARS and Avian flu,” he said. “The importance here is those kinds of diseased states that actually have an elevated temperature where this would become very valuable.”