By Alyssa Rios, C2ST Intern, Waubonsee Community College

Imagine standing close enough to a fire that the heat would make you instinctively step backward. Now imagine having to work in that environment while relying on specialized materials to protect you. Every time firefighters respond to a structure fire, they enter conditions that can reach temperatures far beyond what the human body can tolerate. Their gear doesn’t make them immune to fire, but it gives them valuable time to do their jobs safely. Behind every helmet, coat, and pair of gloves are decades of research in chemistry, physics, and engineering. Rather than being one bulky suit, firefighter gear is a carefully designed system of materials that work together to slow heat, block water, and protect the body. 

A common misconception is that firefighters are protected simply because their gear is thick. In reality, the protection comes from the way multiple layers work together. Firefighter turnout gear is built in layers, with each one doing a different job. According to firefighter PPE training materials, structural firefighting gear is constructed in “three layers”: the outer shell, moisture barrier, and thermal liner. Rather than relying on one material to do everything, each part protects against a different hazard. 

The outer shell protects against flames, heat, and physical damage. The moisture barrier blocks dangerous liquids, such as bodily fluids, chemicals, and contaminated water, while still allowing some perspiration to escape, and the thermal liner slows the movement of heat toward the firefighter’s body. Together, these layers create a protective barrier between firefighters and the dangerous conditions around them. Surprisingly, the gear also relies on something you can’t even see: trapped air. According to firefighter PPE training materials, “air channels between the thermal liner and the moisture barrier” create spaces where hot air and gases become trapped. These pockets of air act like the insulation in a house or a cooler, slowing the movement of heat toward the firefighter’s body.  

The outer shell is the firefighter’s first protection against flames, heat, and physical hazards. Unlike fabrics used in everyday clothing, these materials won’t easily melt, burn, or weaken in extreme heat. One example is Kevlar®, an aramid fiber developed by DuPont. Aramid fibers are a type of synthetic fiber known for being lightweight, strong, and resistant to heat. According to DuPont, Kevlar has a “unique combination of high strength, high modulus, toughness and thermal stability.” Its high modulus means the fibers resist stretching and deformation, helping the fabric maintain its shape and strength when exposed to physical stress. Combined with its thermal stability, this allows Kevlar to help protect firefighters from both the heat and demanding conditions of a structure fire.

Another common material is Nomex®, which DuPont describes as having “mechanical toughness, thermal stability, flexibility and resilience.” These qualities matter because firefighters aren’t standing still. They need to crawl through buildings, climb ladders, carry equipment, and rescue victims while wearing their protective gear. The outer shell is therefore designed to do two jobs at once: provide protection while still allowing firefighters to function in physically demanding situations. However, stopping flames is only part of the challenge.

The moisture barrier and the thermal liner do more than keep firefighters dry. The moisture barrier keeps out water, bloodborne pathogens, and other hazardous liquids while still allowing sweat to escape. This is possible because the barrier contains microscopic pores that are small enough to block liquid water but allow water vapor from sweat to pass through. According to firefighter PPE training materials, its purpose is “to prevent any liquid from coming inside, but it also assists in allowing sweat from the firefighter to escape.” Working together, the moisture barrier and the thermal liner also provide much of the gear’s insulation. The training materials explain that these layers account for “70% of the thermal protection from outside exposure to heat,” slowing the transfer of heat and giving firefighters valuable time to work safely.

Designing firefighting gear is a constant balancing act. Adding more material can increase protection, but it also makes the gear heavier, hotter, and harder to move in. Firefighters must crawl through tight spaces, climb ladders, carry equipment, communicate through radios, and wear self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), all while wearing protective clothing. Because firefighter equipment is responsible for protecting people in life-threatening environments, it must also follow strict safety requirements. Organizations such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) establish standards that guide the design and testing of this equipment, but engineers still face the challenge of balancing protection, comfort, and mobility.

The next time you see firefighters rushing toward a burning building, remember that their gear is much more than a heavy uniform. Every fiber, layer, and even the tiny pockets of trapped air serve a scientific purpose. Materials like Kevlar and Nomex provide strength and heat resistance, while the layered design of turnout gear slows heat transfer and protects against hazardous materials. Firefighters rely on courage when entering dangerous environments, but behind that courage are decades of chemistry, physics, and engineering working together to give them the time they need to save lives and return home safely. 

Sources

DuPont. Kevlar® Properties | Kevlar® Technical Guide, www.dupont.com/news/kevlar-properties.html.

DuPont. Properties of Nomex® 410, www.dupont.com/news/nomex-410.html.

Los Angeles Fire Department. Fire Gear, Tools, and Safety Breakdown, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmtr9mL7L6g.

National Fire Protection Association. Codes and Standards, www.nfpa.org/for-professionals/codes-and-standards.

By Alex Zhang, C2ST Intern, DePaul University

“Are we alone in the universe?” For thousands of years, the question has stumped humanity. Through icons like E.T., the Alien franchise, and most recently Project Hail Mary, our fascination with the extraterrestrial has dominated popular culture and media for generations. But the search for life isn’t just contained in scripts or on film reels; scientists in a dizzying number of hyper-specific fields make daily progress expanding our knowledge of space, getting us ever so closer to answering that burning question. One such discovery has been pivotal in that task, providing stepping stones to understanding the universe in completely unexpected ways. This is the history and science of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs).
Continue reading “The Future of Our Universe is Bright. Really, Really Bright.”

By Raechel Hearth, C2ST Intern, University of Chicago

You always hear people say “look ahead” or “hold your head high,” but I would challenge you to take a moment to look down and think about the ground below. When I was little – much to my parents’ dismay – my favorite pastime was finding the muddiest puddle around and splashing away in it! If it wasn’t that, I was taking my toys outside and building entire ecosystems for them in the ground, including caves, mountains out of dirt, or even whole river systems using a hose. But this material is more than just a fun mess! Below us is one of the Earth’s greatest resources: soil. It is teeming with life, full of structure, and yet remains mostly hidden to us. In this blog, I hope to share just some of the many ways that soil is unique, fascinating, and crucial to life on Earth. Continue reading “Right Under Your Feet: Why Soil is More Than Just Dirt”

By Alyssa Rios, C2ST Intern, Waubonsee Community College

Have you ever wondered why almost everyone instinctively smiles when they see a baby? Even though babies are a lot of work and can be disruptive, they are irresistibly cute, and it’s hard to stay mad at them. Babies get sweet and affectionate reactions out of total strangers, and the cuteness of a familiar baby seems to never wear off.  Scientists believe that reaction isn’t accidental; it may be an evolutionary adaptation to help babies survive.  

There is actually a term for babies’ cuteness and our response to it- the baby schema effect. Baby features, such as “chubby cheeks, large, low-set eyes, and a large, round head,” are part of their evolution. In other words, evolution may have made babies adorable because adorable babies are more likely to survive by eliciting responses from adults that encourage them to care for the babies. There is so much to love about how babies look, especially their stubby limbs, disproportionately large heads, and little button noses. Most of the baby schema features that have been extensively studied “appear in the head and the face.” This isn’t specific to human babies either; it applies to animals too! Animals that have features that register as “cute” in our brains have the same effect of caregiving responses, so it’s no wonder why puppies and kittens can steal the hearts of many. Their appearance does more than simply make them look adorable; it creates a specialized response from adults. This response happens largely without conscious thought, causing people to feel drawn to infant faces before they even realize what makes them so appealing.

Human babies are unusually helpless. They require years of care, unlike many other animals, so evolution favored traits that naturally encouraged adults to invest in their survival. Their infant features create a neurological response in adults to take care of, protect, and nurture babies, helping ensure they get the care they need to grow and develop. Not only does their appearance inspire us to take care of their needs, but it also inhibits aggression. This response is especially important during infancy, when babies are completely dependent on adults for everything. Together, these responses help create an environment in which infants are more likely to receive the protection, patience, and attention they need during the earliest stages of life. No wonder babies are so cute; they have to be to survive!  

Researchers have found that infants with stronger baby schema features were consistently rated as cuter and elicited a greater desire to care for and pay attention to them. This finding is especially important because it suggests that baby schema does more than make babies appear adorable; it ultimately encourages adults to prioritize their care. In their helplessness, these features may serve as one of the evolutionary mechanisms that increases their chances of survival. Of course, not everyone experiences this response equally. Parents may be more sensitive to the baby schema effect, and researchers also note that people who simply dislike infants may show weaker responses overall. 

Not only do babies’ infantile traits help us take care of them, they also promote bonding. Their features elicit smiles from those who look at them, and that contributes to positive relationships. Babies turn toward their caregivers’ facial expressions “to guide their feelings and behaviors,” so these positive expressions contribute to bonding between the baby and caretaker. 

The next time you see a baby and instinctively want to smile, hold, or interact positively with them, you now know that there is a scientific reason for that reaction! Those tiny features not only make babies adorable, but also ensure that the most dependent and vulnerable members of our society are being properly taken care of, protected, and loved. 

Sources: 

Glocker, Melanie L, et al. “Baby Schema in Infant Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults.” Ethology : Formerly Zeitschrift Fur Tierpsychologie, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2009, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3260535/.

Hannah Spencer, Franca H. Parianen Lesemann, Renate S.M. Buisman, Eline J. Kraaijenvanger, Susan Branje, Marco P.M. Boks, Peter A. Bos, Facing infant cuteness: How nurturing care motivation and oxytocin system gene methylation are associated with responses to baby schema features, Hormones and Behavior, Volume 164, 2024, 105595, ISSN 0018-506X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105595. 

Vicky Lehmann, Elisabeth M.J. Huis in‘t Veld, Ad J.J.M. Vingerhoets, The human and animal baby schema effect: Correlates of individual differences, Behavioural Processes, Volume 94, 2013, ISSN 0376-6357, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2013.01.001.

By Stephanie Sorich, C2ST Correspondent

For the citizens of Chicago, the summer of 2026 has not been all sunshine and lake days. Between violent storms turning into flash floods and hazy skies brought on by wildfires, the weather has been a mixed bag. Those smoky days have caused Chicagoans to focus on a once less-considered aspect of the weather: air quality.

Continue reading “Science of Everything: Air Quality Index”

By Alex Zhang, C2ST Intern, DePaul University

Just a few weeks ago I was fishing at Ottertail Lake, Minnesota, searching for Northern Pike. Like many fishermen, mobile apps and online threads help me gauge which species are located in each freshwater body. Through the collective knowledge of previous successful fishermen in an area, the internet allows us to gain a rough understanding of what we could find. For casual hobbyists, anecdotal evidence is more than enough to set up the right fishing strategy. But for scientists studying freshwater systems, obtaining precise results requires sampling fish on a much larger scale than the catch-and-click process. So how do they accomplish this?

(My brother holding a tiny pike we caught in Ottertail Lake.) Picture #1

In many shallow freshwater bodies, electrofishing is the preferred method for rapid research of fish populations, allowing scientists to collect dozens of individuals at once. While it may sound like a “shocking” technique, electrofishing is in fact a minimally invasive and reliable system used since the mid 1800s! The practice of stunning fish itself has existed within indigenous cultures for centuries with plant toxins; electrofishing simply presents a relatively new method of stupefying. The basic electrofishing boat outfit includes a metal boat, a generator, and a number of poles hanging from the front of the boat (referred to as booms or anodes). Once the boat is in the desired sampling area – and hopefully floating above a number of fish – the poles are lowered underwater.

Using a foot pedal to control the electricity, a circuit is created using the poles as a ‘positive’ end and the metal boat itself as a ‘negative’ end. Electric currents are pulsed through the booms, traveling the circuit and directly through the water, causing a process called galvanotaxis in nearby fish. Galvanotaxis appears just like “The Force” from Star Wars or Professor X’s telekinesis from Marvel’s X-Men; affected fish are forced to swim towards the boat against their will. But what seems like mind control is actually the biological process of involuntary muscle movement, caused by interactions between an electric current and the body of a fish. You can think of this similarly to the “It’s Alive!” scene in any Frankenstein media, where the creature jolts to life after it’s shocked with high-intensity voltage. The comparison is useful for understanding involuntary muscle movement, but electrofishing’s effects are far less violent than this.

While risks are always present, galvanotaxis is generally not harmful to fish assuming proper care, equipment, and methods are followed. The practice has been continually refined since its origins nearly 200 years ago, and modern electrofishing is an effective and efficient way to sample many aquatic species (even including crustaceans!). Once the stunned fish swim towards the boat, scientists use a net to scoop them up. From there, they can identify the species of fish, measure their physical traits, and administer a variety of other tests to learn more about the marine ecosystem. The fish are then placed back in the water unharmed and unchanged. 

Of course, electrofishing cannot be used in every scenario. Some freshwater bodies can be too deep for the electric current to work on fish, while the salt in non-freshwater bodies disrupts electrical currents and requires a different approach. The size and weight of a fish also change its effectiveness. Yet overall, electrofishing is an extremely useful tactic to be aware of, and represents one of the many ways ancient practices have evolved through modern technology. Now if only I could actually mind control the fish to swim to my bait! (Be warned, electrofishing is permitted for science purposes only and is illegal for fishermen.)

Sources:

Electrofishing – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics, accessed July 1, 2026. 

Electrofishing – FISHBIO | Fisheries Consultants.

Alonso (2001). 

Fish Monitoring via Electrofisher – DNREC, accessed July 2, 2026. 

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, accessed July 3rd, 2026.

IISD Experimental Lakes Area, accessed July 2, 2026. 

James Reynolds, American Fisheries Society (2020). 

Robert Heizer, Smithsonian Institution (1953). 

Understanding Electrofishing: A Vital Tool for Fish Population Management (2025). 

Washington Department of Natural Resources (2016).