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At a small laboratory tucked away in a gleaming basketball arena, I’m running on a treadmill under lamps designed to mimic the heat of the sun.
It’s almost 92 degrees. Sweat is flying off my face. I’m hooked up to machines that are tracking my internal body temperature, heartbeat and other measurements I usually don’t think about.
“I’m starting to feel really hot,” I say to the researchers huddled nearby, watching my vital signs. “I’m sweating like crazy.”
For the researchers, it’s just another day at the heat lab at the Korey Stringer Institute, where they are working to understand the effects of a warming world on the human body.
“Sweat’s a good thing!” Rebecca Stearns, the institute’s chief operating officer and an academic expert in heat stroke, heat-related illnesses and athletic performance, tells me.
The lab, at the University of Connecticut, addresses a growing crisis. Deaths and illnesses related to heat exposure have increased sharply in recent years, as climate change pushes temperatures higher.
