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DEAD HEAT

D
uring the 2022 summer U.S. Open, world-ranked No. 3 singles tennis player Daniil Medvedev looked into a courtside camera and said, “One player is going to die, and they’re going to see.”

He was speaking of the extreme heat he and his opponent suffered during the nearly three-hour match in which he cooled himself with towels full of ice.

Medvedev wasn’t the first athlete to complain. Two years earlier at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, tennis player Paula Badosa of Spain was helped off the court in a wheelchair due to heat stroke.

Medvedev also suffered there: The umpire at his Olympic match asked if he was OK to continue. Medvedev replied, “I can finish the match but I can die. If I die, is the ITF (International Tennis Federation) going to take responsibility?” (He won that match.)

And Jamie Farndale, a U.K. rugby player, shared his experience training for the Dubai Rugby Sevens in Rings of Fire — Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a report prepared by Australian advocacy group FrontRunners and released as extreme heat broke records around the world.

“I remember we prepared for Dubai Sevens one year by doing heat chamber sessions at our training base in Scotland. … You just couldn’t cool down all day, you were tense and angry — fights would break out in our sessions, which never ever happened normally. It was pretty scary to see the effects! On the pitch I remember just wanting to get through the match — which is crazy! Something you dedicate your life to because you love it so much and here you are on the world stage willing it to end!

“What we do is push ourselves to our limits, and if we have to do so in conditions that are unsafe, I don’t think the athlete would hold back. It is not in an athlete’s DNA to stop and if the conditions are too dangerous, I do think there is a risk of fatalities.” This fear is not unfounded.

“Oppressive environmental conditions — temperature, humidity, radiation and wind speed — are one of, if not the greatest, risk factors for exertional heat illnesses,” says Samantha Scarneo-Miller, who studies heat injuries at West Virginia University.

“As these environmental conditions worsen, it makes it difficult for our body to dissipate heat. When we produce more heat than we are able to dissipate, we can eventually reach ‘uncompensable heat stress,’ which can lead to exertional heat illnesses.”

Heat-related illnesses, some life-threatening, are increasing and can impact major organs.

Skin deep

The skin is the largest of the human organs, and it plays a vital role in cooling the body. It protects internal organs, communicating with the brain to regulate body temperatures. When skin temperatures spike or fall, the skin’s thermoreceptors signal the hypothalamus in the center of the brain, which produces hormones to regulate heart rate, hunger and temperature.

Blood vessels relax, increasing blood flow that carries excess heat to the skin’s surface. Sweat allows that heat to leave the body and cool us down.
The body’s optimum internal temperature is 37.1 degrees Celsius. And the internal thermostat will always work to return the body to this temperature.

But what if it can’t?

CAPTION: Hot Wheels
By: Jade Sterling

Didier Pironi gave the most to win the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans race for his team. He took the last two stints of the race, driving for four hours in a non-air-conditioned cockpit under a Plexiglas roof in June. He took the checkered flag, parked up and promptly collapsed. The race doctor unzipped his fire suit and covered him in ice. In 2005, Stephane Sarrazin said his cockpit reached 80 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning became a requirement in 2007. Read more›››

Racing drivers are no strangers to feeling the heat in competition but racing is definitely heating up. The Formula One Singapore Grand Prix is renowned as the most difficult race of the year as ambient temperatures stick around 40C — at night, when the race is run — and the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix saw many drivers seek medical attention for either dehydration or heat exhaustion after a race run in 30°C and high humidity.

A warming planet and higher ambient temperatures only exacerbate the conditions racing drivers experience. Many formulae see the drivers sat directly in front of the engines, surrounded by electronics heating the cockpit. Brakes can reach 1,000C and even catch fire. Drivers must wear fire-retardant, long-sleeved safety clothing, topped with a race suit, gloves, balaclava and helmet, all of which store heat and prevent any heat exchange. Thermoregulation becomes very difficult even on cooler days.

Studies have found the peak post-race core temperature of V8 supercar drivers was 39.7C and 38.6C for NASCAR drivers. A reminder that normal body core temperature generally ranges from 36.5 to 37.5C. Hyperthermia is considered anything over 38.5C. Another study found drivers in closed-cockpit races were halfway to their peak temperature after just 10 minutes of racing.

Any rise in temperature can see fatigue and impaired mental performance start to creep in, the last thing you want at 220mph.‹‹‹ Read less

“From a thermoregulation standpoint, the pre-optic area of the hypothalamus (POAH) is the area that controls temperature for the body. At some point during extreme exercise in the heat, the POAH is affected and is unable to effectively regulate the body, though the specific mechanism and timing for this is not well known. As these physiological changes continue to worsen, it affects our body’s ability to thermoregulate, eventually leading to exertional heat illnesses,” Scarneo-Miller tells KUST Review.

A body unable to cool itself due to extreme heat can experience heat exhaustion. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headaches and muscle cramps. Most of these can be alleviated by releasing the heat, resting, replenishing fluids and cooling down.

Most athletes, however, as rugby player Farndale noted, are often hard-wired to never give up.

The problem is that heat exhaustion can develop into heatstroke. Results can include traumatic brain injury or death.

One way to minimize these illnesses, experts say, is by adapting to higher temperatures.

This is better known as heat acclimation or reducing the impact on heart rate and body temperature via training.
Though “there are no validated technologies to monitor and prevent completely exertional heat-related illnesses,” Scarneo-Miller says, preventative measures like heat acclimatization are necessary.

“Heat acclimatization is the process of gradually increasing the intensity of physical activity in the heat. Intensity is inclusive of duration of activity (e.g., time), when the activity is performed (e.g., time of the day when it is hottest), equipment worn (e.g., football helmets), amongst other elements,” she adds.

Diving in

Some athletes travel to the competition site weeks in advance to train.

According to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, for highly fit athletes this might take one to two weeks of 90-minute daily heat exposure.

If moving to training locations isn’t on the cards, some athletes simulate the heat where they are. The Belgium field hockey team, for example, set its heat chamber to 50C to prepare.

Marathoners will also train for hotter climates. Some spend time in a sauna post-training or wear outfits over their clothes to bring their body temperature higher during training.

Canadian marathoner Rory Linkletter says he wears extra clothing during some of his training runs. “You are an engine, and if the engine is hot, it burns faster, so it’ll slow you down. The number one thing you can do is train your body to be a little less bothered by the heat,” he tells the New York Times.

Putting it to the test

Athletes are capable of pushing their bodies to extremes. But how much further can they push themselves in the heat? What is the human limit?

Every human is different, so results vary. Testing can also pose ethical questions. Therefore, until recently, this type of human testing had never been done.

But as global temperatures soar, it’s something athletes and everyone else on the planet needs to know for their own safety.

That’s why a team of researchers at the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia, tested humans in a heat chamber set to a wet-bulb temperature (heat combined with humidity) of 54C and 26 percent humidity – a threshold a research team 15 years ago proposed no human could survive for six hours.

One study participant runs 100 kilometers per week, is 31 years old and spent a week acclimatizing prior to his time in the climate chamber.

The experiment, intended to last three hours, ended at the 2.5-hour mark after the participant’s core temperature reached 39C – the max allowed.

The experiment was done several times under different temperatures and conditions. This was the first time the subject was unable to withstand the three-hour mark.

The first-of-its-kind experiment is ongoing and aims to answer the question how much heat is too much?

Turning to tech

In the meantime, to help athletes keep a cool head, some are turning to technology.

Current wearables on the market track heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate. But for those training to withstand extreme temperatures, body-temperature readings need to be part of the mix.

Core wearable by Zurich-based company Greenteg tracks every element of athletes’ performance. The device monitors heat entering and exiting the skin, allowing it to track the core body temperature.

Cool threads

Scientists are working hard to keep us cool with just the clothes on our backs. Read more›››

A group of researchers at the University of Massachusetts have created a natural film that can be added to clothing, and the results show that this coating of calcium carbonate — the main ingredient in limestone, marble and chalk — helps reflect the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere and still allows body heat to escape.

“We see a true cooling effect,” says Evan Patamia, a chemistry graduate student on the project. “What is underneath the sample feels cooler than standing in the shade.”

The resulting temperature reduction under clothing is approximately 4.5 degrees Celsius. There is no electrical component, less need for carbon-intensive cooling measures and zero environmental impact.

“What makes our technique unique is that we can do this on nearly any commercially available fabric and turn it into something that can keep people cool,” Patamia says. The team is working with a start-up company that may provide scalable production.‹‹‹ Read less

This helps athletes to not only ensure thermoregulation for safety, but enhance performance: Thermoregulation in athletes enables maximum performance without the risk of overheating. “Thermoregulation is also used in targeted heat training to continuously extend time to fatigue without risking injury,” according to the company website.

The data also includes skin temperature; heat strain, which tells us how hard the body works to cool itself; and temperature zones, which train the body and can improve performance. Finally the device tracks thermal load, or how long the athlete remained within the heat training zone.

For team sports with breaks, cooling technology is helping with thermoregulation.
heat

A 2022 study about the need for face-, head- and neck-cooling technology that can be worn during and after training mentions that after the human face, the hands are the next on the cold thermosensitivity scale, particularly the palm and sole.

A 2023 study from the University of North Dakota concluded that cooling the palms led to increased endurance.

Hands out

But why the palms? The palms contain a high number of arterio-venous anastomoses (AVA), which are located below the skin and provide a shortcut for the blood to quickly move from arteries to veins.

It’s this shortcut that lets the body release heat efficiently. So, when you’re overheating, more blood is flowing through the AVA, bringing heat to the skin’s surface.

This means the palms are an effective heat-offloading site.

Sports tech company Apex Cool Labs says the technology used in its palm-cooling device, Narwhals, reduces heat stress and accelerates recovery time, allowing for enhanced performance not only for endurance sports but also for strength training.

Stanford University’s Craig Heller studied human temperature regulation and found that the primary heat exchange surfaces of human bodies are the hairless skin of the palms, soles and face.

This led to the development of CoolMitt, which some U.S athletes used to cool core body temperatures at the 2024 Summer Olympic games.

“If you can eliminate fatigue, you can increase the work volume, you get a huge conditioning effect,” Heller tells CBS News.

While there is tech that helps us cool and prevent heat injury, West Virginia University’s Scarneo-Miller says updated policy should be part of the solution.

“Sport organizations need to be very cognizant that as the environment continues to warm, we need to make policy changes to protect our athletes. Developing strong and proactive policies now will allow us to be better prepared for these worsening environmental conditions.

“Policies such as requiring heat acclimatization, an athletic trainer at every sports organization, cold-water immersion tubs available within five minutes of all venues, and emergency action plans all can help recognize and manage a patient suffering from exertional heat illnesses, especially exertional heat stroke, which can be fatal,” Scarneo-Miller tells KUST Review.

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Chatbots are not therapists

The rise of new technology has created a lot of positive possibilities for people struggling with mental health. We can call or text crisis hotlines instantly, and there are wearables and apps that monitor behavior, flag changes and alert a professional before things spiral.

But mental health apps still exist in a space with very little regulation, and we need more information about their safety and effectiveness — which is why the American Psychological Association issued a health advisory.

It’s also ironic that the global mental health crisis is fueled, in large part, by technology itself — especially social media, yet many of us are turning to the same technology to help fix the problems it helped create.

Generative AI chatbots are a good example. Millions of people around the world use them for mental health advice or support because they’re easy to access and inexpensive. Most of these tools, however, were never designed for clinical guidance or treatment and aren’t grounded in strong science or overseen by any real regulation.

The mental-health association warns consumers to be cautious: Much of this technology lacks proper safety protocols and carries significant risks. These AI tools were never meant to replace professional mental health care.

In fact, the advisory points out that some of these technologies — especially GenAI chatbots — have already had unsafe interactions with vulnerable users, including children and people with existing mental health challenges. Some conversations have encouraged self-harm, substance use, eating disorders, aggression and delusional thinking.

The advisory stresses that although there are also some pros, consumers need to understand the many risks, and it calls on researchers to rigorously evaluate these tools to ensure their safety before we lean on them for support.

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Repeat that please

Short tandem repeats, or STRS, are tiny stretches of repeated DNA that might be more significant than scientists originally thought.

It was once believed that the length of the repeat (only) can change how nearby genes switch on and off, especially in the brain. Researchers recently found, however, that the pattern of the repeat also plays a role.

In genetic data from more than 3,000 people, researchers found that some STRs fluctuate in sequence and tend to sit near Alu elements, or “jumping genes,” which can move to different positions within the genome.

They were typically thought of as genetically functionless, but their movement impacts the genome variation and causes genetic diseases and more.

These variations were linked to changes in the gene activity involved in brain development, memory and cell communication.

The study also found that people of African descent had the greatest variety in these repeat patterns. Altogether, the findings suggest that these tiny DNA stutters may play a quiet but meaningful role in shaping how our brains function and how we differ from one another.

The paper was published in Genome biology.

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Building the oil industry and the UAE’s future

The pale light of dawn stirred the Habshan oil field. The horizon shimmered with heat before the sun rose. The engines rumbled, and the men in faded overalls moved through the dust with quiet purpose.

Among them was a 22-year-old mechanic, my father, Faraj Salem Almazrouei, starting his first month-long shift for the National Drilling Company in 1977.

He was to keep the heart of the rig alive. Every bolt and motor weighed in its own importance. To him, the desert was workspace and world alike: unforgiving, endless and promising. Every day began with a wrench in hand and ended beneath a star-filled sky.

That same year, deep in the sands of Abu Dhabi, another story was unfolding, not of one man but of a nation rising on the power of oil.

THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED IT ALL

CAPTION: Sultan Faraj Almazrouei

Before oil, the UAE was a land of small coastal towns. Life followed the sea: fishing, pearl diving and trade. The desert was more obstacle than opportunity. Then came the late 1950s, when drills went down and black gold came up.

It was in 1962 that the first shipment of crude left Abu Dhabi, marking a turn of history. By 1977, when my father joined, the country was being transformed: Roads reached the dunes, ports expanded and new schools were opening in towns that had not existed 10 years earlier.

He called it “living inside a miracle.” Every year brought something new: a road, a camp, a skyline.

LIFE ON THE RIG

Work on an oil rig was not for the faint-hearted. The schedule was relentless – one month on, one month off, a rhythm that shaped his life for two decades. During work months he lived between Habshan and Asab, two of Abu Dhabi’s busiest fields.

Days commenced well before sunrise. Before mid morning, the temperatures were above 45°C, with heat radiating from the metal rigs. For most of each day, the mechanics, engineers and drillers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, shouting over the roar of machines.

Day and night, the rigs ran even when teams knew one loose bolt could stop production.

There was pride in that suffering, however. The crew turned into a family: Emiratis, Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, bound by the same goal. They all worked and ate and slept under the same stars. My father said that when the engines at last fell silent, “You could hear the desert breathe.”

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

Beneath those towers lay a hidden world. Wells stretched thousands of meters underground, three to four times the Burj Khalifa’s height. Layers of steel casing prevented collapse, each welded and sealed with precision.

My father’s team maintained the engines that rotated the drill, pumped mud to cool the drill bit and kept pressure steady. “The rig was alive,” he said. “You could feel its heartbeat in the ground.”

In the 1970s, most work was manual. Measurements were taken by hand, and repairs meant improvising with limited tools in extreme heat. Today most of those processes are automated, but back then progress was mainly powered by people.

FROM DESERT WELLS TO GLOBAL POWER

In the 1980s and 1990s, the UAE emerged as a global player in the energy front. State-owned ADNOC and its group companies, including NDC (now called ADNOC Drilling), produced around 3 million barrels per day, with export markets including Japan, China, and India as major destinations.

Oil wealth reshaped the nation: highways, airports, hospitals, and universities rose across the country. When my father began, drilling camps were simple. By the time he retired in 2000, paved roads and electricity reached the remotest rigs, together with satellite phones. “We watched the country grow with our own eyes,” he said proudly.

THE HUMAN SIDE OF A NATIONAL STORY

Yet, even with that machinery, it was people who created the oil industry. My father related to his co-workers not as workers but as family. They celebrated birthdays with shared meals and helped each other through the long, hot days.

Every man had a reason for being there: the technician saving for his daughters, the engineer far from home. Yet all shared one belief. “Every drop we pumped out,” my father said, “meant something was being built somewhere: a hospital, a road, a home.”

BEYOND OIL-A LEGACY OF TRANSFORMATION

Today, the UAE stands as one of the most developed economies in the world, known for its skyscrapers, sustainability, and innovation.

Under these towers is a story of men such as my father, whose work built the foundation for it all.

Oil wealth funded schools and research but also opened the path toward renewable energy.

The same drive that powered the drills now powers the UAE’s quest for solar and hydrogen power. The country has learned not just to use energy, but to transform it.

THE WELLS THAT BUILT A NATION

My father’s hands still show the signs of years with engines and oil, though he is retired now. Sometimes, if we are driving past the Abu Dhabi skyline, he says, “When I started, there was nothing here but sand.” His is one of the thousands of stories, but it epitomizes the UAE’s journey.

The discovery of oil didn’t just bring wealth, it built resilience and ambition. The men who toiled under the scorching desert sun little knew that one day their work would light the cities of the future. The hum of those old machines still seems to echo beneath the sand today, a steady rhythm, the heartbeat of a country risen from grit and steel.

Sultan Faraj Almazrouei is a chemical engineering student at Khalifa University

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Mapping the Emirati genome

Before scientists discovered the millions of hidden gems of the Emirati genome and before personalized medicine became the forefront of healthcare, there was a vision: the Emirati Genome Project.

For decades the Arab genome had been invisible to international databases, and this left researchers lacking insight on regional diseases.

IMAGE: UAE Year of Family

This gap was the main target for the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, which established the Emirates Genome Council in June 2021 chaired by His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

The Genome Project aimed to build a complete and comprehensive genetic map of the Emirati population and advance the UAE in the field of precision medicine.

The project took its first step into light worldwide when researchers identified more than 1 billion genetic variants through analyzing almost 40,000 Emirati genomes; 38 percent of the identified variations were specific to the Emirati population.

CAPTION: Haleema Rauf

Now with over 800,000 samples collected nationwide and several global collaborations, including with Harvard Medical School to train 500 Emirati physicians in genomic medicine, it is recognized worldwide.

“This initiative is not only enhancing local capacity in Abu Dhabi but also setting a benchmark for global healthcare standards,” said Alireza Haghighi, founding director of the Harvard International Center for Genetic Disease.

Suddenly there was a new road being paved for the future of medicine, and it was all happening on home soil.

BEFORE THE BREAKTHROUGH, PREDECESSORS
AND INSPIRATION

To fully understand this milestone, we need to take a step back and recognise the roots of this effort, beyond the laboratories.

Let’s rewind to the 1990s when the idea of DNA mapping ignited the creation of the Human Genome Project, a global milestone. Later, the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium showed how powerful and important genome mapping was. It also highlighted the under-representation of non-European populations in global genomic databases.

Moving forward to the 2010s, researchers in the Middle East had come face-to-face with the absence of the Arab genomic data. This left them blind to the disease patterns and risk factors required to treat the regional population.

In 2015 there was a sudden shift when the Qatar Genome Project was launched. Alongside this initiative, the region started premarital and newborn-screening programs. These combined efforts highlighted the importance of early genetic detection and the gaps in clinical genomics that could not be ignored any longer.

This initiative is not only enhancing local capacity in Abu Dhabi but also setting a benchmark for global healthcare standards.

– Alireza Haghighi, Harvard International Center for Genetic Disease

For the UAE, healthcare leaders seemed to realize the same need, with high rates of recessive genetic conditions due to consanguinity. Keeping in mind UAE’s position as a global innovation hub, the launch of the Emirati Genome Project was not just a step forward in science, but it also established itself as one of the largest population genome projects. It aimed to sequence 1 million Emirati genomes. This initiative marks a landmark in UAE’s journey into precision healthcare.

THE NEW ERA: EMIRATI DNA AT THE
FOREFRONT OF DEVELOPMENT

The Emirati Genome Project is currently one of the world’s most active population-genomics initiatives.

The UAE now has its first full telomere-to-telomere reference genome (a complete version of the Emirati genetic map). The risk of hereditary cancer can now be detected earlier than ever before through precision oncology programs. Moreover, newborn screening now identifies more than 815 treatable genetic conditions.

In this era, doctors can decide on the safest and most effective medications for their patients. This has revolutionized scientific research.

CHALLENGES FACED
AND OVERCOME

Success did not come without struggle. This may seem like a seamless operation, but it was built through years of problem-solving and careful policy development.

The biggest obstacle faced was ensuring the public’s trust and the safety of their data. A survey in 2022 showed that 73% of the population supported the program; the rest were willing to participate but hesitated due to privacy concerns. This meant a legal and technological framework was needed to safeguard the highly sensitive information. The UAE established one of the strongest genomic data-protection laws in the world. This made sure that all genetic data would be stored within national infrastructure and protected heavily.

This leads us to the next hurdle: Where would the infrastructure for processing the massive amount of genetic data come from?

This is how the M42 Centre of Excellence was established.

Today, it is the largest sequencing facility outside of the United States, and it enables industrial-scale processing that is supported by robotics.

Further partnerships with institutes like Khalifa University, Harvard Medical School International Center for Genetic Disease, SEHA and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi have made possible the training and education of professionals and developing large laboratories to accomplish the groundbreaking research.

This has positioned the UAE as a global leader in precision medicine and research. The Emirati Genome Project stands as a testament to the possibilities of scientific ambition, and the discoveries are already reshaping the future of healthcare globally.

Haleema Rauf is a cell & molecular biology junior at Khalifa University.

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