Climate

How the body adapts to extreme heat

New methods could help vulnerable people acclimate to higher temperatures

Red and orange colored line-drawing of a human torso and head with internal organs exposed. The human holds a damp cloth to his head to cool down.

Illustration by SayoStudio

By Katarina Zimmer

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“I can’t do this,” the woman in her 60s said as she lowered herself into the 40° Celsius water that filled a big silver tub at the end of a dimly lit room in the University of Ottawa’s Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit.