IamA NASA scientist. I invented an ice vest that burns calories just by wearing it, while you sit on your butt. For some reason people find the SECOND part hard to believe. AMA!

Have you thought about marketing this towards truck drivers? We seem like the perfect target audience. We sit alot eat shit food and carry freezers with us.

Wow. That's awesome. How do we market to you guys? Is there a mag? Website? Professional trade group of some sort? FB page? :-)

Does this affect the ratio of brown fat cells to white fat cells?

Yes! Mild cold exposure can stimulate the conversion of white fat cells to brown fat. You've been doing your homework. :-)

In the info sheet, it says that the vest specifically targets brown fat. Doesn't this contradict what you just said, or am I misunderstanding?

No, you are not misunderstanding. I wrote that 4 years ago and I was wrong. I don't normally provide that InfoSheet.pdf any more; I really should update it. I've learned so much about metabolism since then. Sorry for that.

Interesting. So different than how the body treats red muscle vs white muscle?

Hmm. I've never heard of red and white muscle. I'll look that up after this AMA.

It's fast twitch vs slow, i.e. sprinting vs endurance. Red and white muscle ratios can't be changed; however, some studies show the nervous systems response can be. (very important for athletes). I understand a higher ratio of brown fat cells is healthier IIRC.

Oh right! Yes, I've heard of the twitch speed muscles vs not. But only heard. I don't know much about it.

Yes, more brown fat means less white fat. Which is a good thing.

Do you feel any guilt about trying to exploit your contractor status at NASA as an appeal to authority to sell a bogus, bullshit product? It's pretty unethical, really.

Do you feel any guilt about trying to claim youre a scientist, when you conduct no real experiments but instead you are a mathematician?

Do you feel guilty about using Reddit AMA as a personal advertising vehicle for your product? That's a pretty shitty thing to do as well. AMAs are not supposed to be advertisements for dubious weight loss products.

Also, could you link me to the peer reviewed metabolic studies showing this vest actually burns calories and some figures about the exact number of calories that are burned by wearing it? As a fellow "scientist", obviously you would understand that this is the bare minimum required to take you seriously, instead of dismissing you as an pathetic infomercial quack.

Do you feel any guilt in spouting off without actually reading the AMA?

I thought not. Take some time read the actual AMA. All your questions have actually been answered already, with links and references. I've been here 8 hours. Now I'm going to bed.

G'night.

Are the calories spent just to keep you warm?

Yes. Basically we cool you just enough to stimulate your metabolism; shivering would be uncomfortable so we try to avoid that level of cold.

Why does your vest burn more calories than just cranking up the AC, or down the heat in Winter?

It may not, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper. You wanna cool your entire home to 65F? That's a lot of electricity. Consider this a personal AC device. Much less power required.

Chill walks in winter can help too---just be careful of frostbite!

I can burn calories no matter what? Just how cold is this ice vest?

Follow-up question: what is the 50 years of science? (Edit:) If you mean shivering burns calories, I'd think the science would be older than 50 years, no?

If you have a heartbeat, you're always burning calories. :-) This vest helps you burn more calories. The ice we use, and the fabric around it, are used therapeutically. It's not uncomfortably cold. We call it "mild cold". It comes out of your freezer, but the fabric around it protects your skin from damage.

Yes, people have known about cold causing excess calorie burn for more than 50 years. :-) But it's been studied formally in the lab since about 1960.

How long does it stay cold, given a person of normal body temp on, say, a 75 degree day?

Also, does it come with its own freezer? I'm not moving my steaks out of the way for a giant vest.

It stays cold about 2-4 hours depending on environment. Water ice melts in less than an hour.

No you need your own freezer. :-) It's not a GIANT vest, though. :-)

What about us people without a heartbeat?

Vampires. Judging by "Twilight", none of you need to lose weight.

edit: How many calories are we talking about?

Our informal clinical tests show about 1-2 pounds of fat lost per week, all else being equal. This corresponds to about 500-1,000 calories (technically, kcal) per day. There are metabolic changes to your body that make it hard (or misleading) to directly measure calories burned. But since fat loss is what we're all most concerned about, that's the value we actually measure.

1-2lbs a week for being cold sounds like a pretty decent deal to me. How long would you have to wear it for results like that?

Our users see the results pretty much immediately.

The trick---and I have to admit this as an honest scientist---is that we don't know how long such results will continue. We do have users who started out fairly chubby and have been using it for months, and continue to see fat loss. YMMV, of courcse.

I took the question to be more along the lines: how long per day do you wear the vest for the stated results?

Ah. We recommend 1-2 hours, twice a day. Bascally wear it until it melts, at least once a day. (it takes 2-3 hours to melt an warm up)

Informal clinical test? Misleading data?

How was this study designed? How many were enrolled? What was measured?

As a scientist, why don't you published a peer reviewed study?

As I said elsewhere: The vest needs a clinical trial in order to have a peer-reviewed publication on it, and clinical trials cost about $100k. We don't have that cash lying around. The only way to have another academic do a clinical trial on a product pro-bono is if they think it's bogus; then they have an incentive to prove it wrong, for the public good. Problem is, everybody clinician I've talked to says, "Duh, of course it'll work. Why would I spend my hard-earned grant money to prove your product works? If you want me to do that, you'll need to pay for the trial." Kind of a catch-22 really.

You can read about our informal trial here: http://1800icevest.com/InfoSheet.pdf

You might do well to hire a graphic designer / marketer to tidy up your stuff. No offence, but your website and info LOOK like one of those dodgy weight loss / scam websites. It's a lot easier and cheaper to produce something that looks more professional and trustworthy these days - also there's no social media integration of any worth and the payment experience is a little bit of a red flag moment. A campaign should be easy to do with a single solid idea and some regular input, you can buy super cheap ads by the thousand as well to see if ads gain any traction. I'd be happy to give you some free advice if you like (I do this for a job).

Sure. What do you think of our latest site, not yet live:

http://ColdShoulder.wpengine.com

Ping me at [email protected], I'd be happy to hear your free advice. :-)

Thanks again.

Much better layout and look, I feel for the designer who did such a great job with everything then had to use that logo ;)

Will follow up via email.

Sigh. Only a few people have trashed my logo (I created it), but when they do, they go on and on about it. :-)

I'll admit I'm a bit partial about the logo since I created it with loving care 4 years ago and it's been our logo ever since. But I'm always open to new ideas. (sob)

It's actually fine, I was just joking, but there's a few basic rules that you should follow. You can keep the logo as it is, but I would make a version that translates in to black and white and retains the original look. Imagine if it was going to be embossed or stitched in fabric in one colour. It's only a minor detail, but if things take off you'll find it easier to build a brand around it and put it on any surface you utilise. For now it's nothing to worry about and you should be proud of it. Logos are the first point of contact in many cases so people get the overly precious about them. Just look at the very first Apple logo. Didn't harm them :)

We actually do have black-on-white and white-on-black. Good point, perhaps we should use the other one on the new site. Thanks.

White: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hqyhok7sp671ge/Head.png?dl=0 Black: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ebrbxur4z0iu93/Black-jpg.jpg?dl=0

Does the vest have a size limit and would it work better on fatter people?

We have a one-size-fits-all that should fit chests up to about 65 inches. We also have a fitted one that goes to about 60 inches. See http://1800IceVest.com.

FYI your site looks about as much like a scam as it could look without actually being one. Actually there are some real scam sites that look more legit. Seriously, get someone to make you a clean, professional site. Personally I would never, ever buy from a site like that. The "three easy payments of $49.99!" the crossed out $199, the super cliche marketing bullet points, it all just screams mid-90s scam. It really doesn't inspire confidence in buyers.

In fact we've been told that many times, and I agree. But our marketing folks love it and say it'll convert. You and I are probably not indicative of the average web populace. Still... we are testing several new (and old) sites:

Here's the site I had before I had marketers get involved: http://ColdShoulderWeightLoss.com

Here's a newer one we just launched: http://TryIceVest.com

And here's a new site that we haven't finished developing yet---you can't even purchase yet: http://ColdShoulder.wpengine.com

Which do you prefer?

Not debating your claim, but has the ice vest gone through the FDA for approval and verification of results?

We have enquired if it needs FDA approval; the answer was "no". The FDA is only worried about things that could be dangerous, and they don't consider an ice vest dangerous.

We are careful, though, not to make medical claims. We are allowed to say it burns calories, or burns fat, but we're not allowed to say it "cures" anything. And that's fine, because that would be a false claim anyway.

Does it have any side effects like endup becomig evil and constantly making ice related puns?

Yes. If you wear it to sleep it'll envelop you and eat you like that old B-rate movie, "The Blob".

have you written a scientific journal on it and had it peer reviewed?

Or otherwise, find a scientific journal that has been peer reviewed on the science behind it and link it on your site.

the site under development.

The vest needs a clinical trial in order to have a peer-reviewed publication on it, and clinical trials cost about $100k. We don't have that cash lying around. The only way to have another academic do a clinical trial on a product pro-bono is if they think it's bogus; then they have an incentive to prove it wrong, for the public good. Problem is, everybody clinician I've talked to says, "Duh, of course it'll work. Why would I spend my hard-earned grant money to prove your product works? If you want me to do that, you'll need to pay for the trial." Kind of a catch-22 really.

As a NASA Scientist, what do you feel is the most important meal of the day?

Breakfast --- skip it! Lots of research has shown that intermittent fasting is healthy for you. The simplest form of it is to skip breakfast.

Given your claims, why aren't northerners skinnier than the rest of the population? I mean, they surely have a benefit from winter that should be measurable.

That's an excellent question. The problem is you need to control for all the relevant variables like diet, exercise, cultural disposition to get out... When you do control for all those variables, there is an observable difference between people in cool climates vs. warm ones. The best example is Switzerland (colder, specifically the German part) vs Germany (warmer). They have almost identical lifestyles, diet, and everything else. But the Swiss tend to be thinner on average. It's the cold.

Same thing can be seen in the US, albeit it's harder to see because so many other things vary between states. Texans tend to be heavier than New Yorkers, but is that diet? Exercise? It's hard to disentangle all those issues but people have tried, and there are differences in weight between colder and warmer climates.

I think then, it still comes down to diet. Increasing metabolism won't help if you respond with increased consumption.

Yes, diet is the most important aspect. I won't lie to you about that. This is about burning extra calories, while you're not in the gym.

Extreme cold will increase your appetite and would thus not help. We aim for mild cold, below the level that would make you hungrier. And our trials show that we've aimed just about right. Without even trying, most of our users lose fat in the long run while wearing our vest.

Hi, the vest looks neat and I'll probably pick it up once I'm able to. I'm at the computer a lot and I'm an amputee making it difficult to exercise, so this seems pretty convenient. This is is going to sound rude, but as an honest criticism, I can tell you right now that if it weren't for this AMA then I wouldn't even consider buying it though. The site looks like an early 2000s advertisement page with really obvious Photoshops, generic wording for testimonies, and rather poor coding. If the site looked more modern and didn't have such hamfisted advertising with more proof of credibility of who you are as well as maybe some more convincing testimonies (e.g. timelapse of someone's body as they use it w/ their review, though I understand this would require cooperation on the user's end) then you'd probably get a lot more purchases. The product itself seems amazing to me, perfect for the society we live in today, but yeah, the advertisement just seems a bit subpar.

As for my questions:

1.) There's two different versions of the vest, is the $150 one less effective than the $200 one? I ask because the $200 seems more encompassing whereas the $150 would be more loose and I feel like that'd take away from the point of the vest.

2.) I read you mention earlier in a comment that one of the saddest parts of the current presidential administration is less funding towards climate change research (rest in peace). How worrying is this to you and to the people you know at NASA? It seems like results on how worrying this is varies from "we'll all be dead in a couple of hundred years" to "we'll all be dead in about fifty", the latter of which seeming more convincing and supported by evidence though exaggerated on my end.

Thanks for the website comments. I agree, an we're working to improve it. As to your questions:

1. They're both equally effective. The Classic just looks a little... classier. If you're just gonna wear it around the house, get the PRO.

2. My collaborators who actually get paid by NASA are very, very worried. I have the lucky disposition of being paid by the University of California, and just having a desk at NASA---they don't pay me.

We won't all be dead due to global climate change. There will just be huge costs involved in the damage to coastlines, the displacement of hundreds of millions of people worldwide away from coastal cities, and the environmental damage caused by people moving into undisturbed wilderness, farmland becoming parched soil, etc, etc, etc. There will be death and destruction on a scale as yet unseen... but we won't perish. Our great grandchildren will despise us, but they'll be alive. Mostly.

How did you get a job at NASA?

I was actually on sabbatical. NASA doesn't pay me; I get paid by the University. But I have a desk at NASA and visit frequently.

Basically I said, "Hey, I wanna work on the climate change project, I'm an expert in computer modelling, and it won't cost you dime!". And I was in. :-)

Whats the most unbelievable piece of government technology that you have ever seen?

Saturn V? Moon lander?

I actually mean "unbelievable" in the "holy shit, we really did that? AMAZING!" category. If you're talking conspiracy theories, I don't keep up with those. There are too many.

How long do you think it would take for this type of technology to become mainstream?

I would imagine that it would need to be made cost effective as well. How much does this vest cost now?

If Dippin' Dots is any indicator, this vest will never get cheaper.

I think mild cold exposure is the third pillar of a healthy lifestyle, after diet + exercise. I think a decade from now this will be common knowledge.

The vest currently retails for $150, and the majority of the cost is the medical grade ice + fabric we use to ensure it's safe on the skin. There are cheaper alternatives, but they either don't last long enough, or can be dangerous.

What would be an example of a cheaper alt?

You could swim more. Swimming even in a heated pool (say at 70F) can stimulate more calorie burn. Or try this: sit neck-deep in a pool but do NOT swim. Even at 70F you'll start shivering within 10-15 minutes. Or walk around without a sweater in 50-60F weather.

Question: what's the best way to do this in a dry environment without getting winter itch (aka without doing out your skin)?

One of my other NASA colleagues, Ray Cronise, has a saying: "gloves before sweater makes you look better!" Tongue-in-cheek, really, but the idea is that you want to keep your extremeties warm: ears, hands, feet. I can go jogging in sub-freezing temperature in shorts and a T-shirt as long as it's not windy, and I wear ear muffs and gloves.

What's prevented you from making ice underwear?

We actually considered that for April Fool's. We had the Chilly Willy(tm) and the Nippy Nips bra.

How effective would it be with long term use? Would the body adjust over time and stop losing weight?

No, actually. What happens is your body gets used to turning on your metabolism to burn the calories. So you feel it less, but the cold always stimulates calorie burn. Independent tests of cold exposure in general (not my vest) show that with prolonged (weeks or months) exposure to mild cold, body fat is reduced and you feel less cold, but the metabolic stimulation is always there when you're exposed to cold. It just gets easier to tolerate.

Do people ever say you look like a combination of Howard Stern and Jeff Goldblumm?

LOL. Not yet. But I'll take that as a compliment.

My wife did say I should have a haircut before doing an AMA...

Have you thought about bringing your vest on the TV show "Shark Tank"? If not what about getting funding from Silicon valley or celebrities?

Yes. They weren't interested. Also a couple other similar shows.

Do you have any pets? If so, which type, what Breed/colors, what are their names?

I used to own a male tabby cat. Was a stray. Had him for about 12 years. Buried him in the forest when he passed away.

He didn't really have a name since he was as tray. We called him tigger.

Mother's maiden name and high school mascot?

Har har. Yeah I was waiting for that question.

His name wasn't really tigger. So there.

Have you thought about getting a celebrity endorser for the Ice Vest, like a former/current actor, athlete, musician, reality TV star?

Yup. Find me one who'll answer my emails or phone calls and I'll love you forever. (Metaphorically.)

A famous CEO who's name I won't mention but happens to run a computer company called Dell bought one. He hasn't answered my requests if he's interested in a corporate wellness program...

I feel like Vanilla Ice would do anything for a dollar and would be a perfect fit, marketing-wise.

Hey. Not a bad idea. I'll try him.

Problem is... all celebs we've tried to contact either don't get back to us, or want a cash-up-front deal rather than a percentage of sales. Alas, we don't have cash-up-front.

How much condensation is created while the ice in the vest continues to warm up? I imagine sitting on your couch with this thing on creates a lot of moisture.

Good question! The fabric we use is basically fleece. It's pretty good at absorbing the condensation and dispersing it (allowing it to evaporate) before it gets out of the vest. Some other vests on the market don't have the appropriate fabric, and may "leak" water to the outside.

How does the ice vest work?

Simple. You throw it in the freezer for a few hours. You take it out, put it on, and go about your business. For a moment, you'll have that just-jumped-in-the-pool feeling of cold... and then it goes away and you forget you're wearing it. You wear it for 1-2 hours, then throw it back in the freezer.

I work in construction and this sounds like a win win for me. Stay cool on hot days and burn calories. I guess I need 8 and a big cooler.

OK. If you buy 8 I can probably give you a volume discount. 10% say? :-)

Not to sound antagonistic but could you get these same effects by drinking cold water?

Yes, but you'd need to drink a lot. Plus most of the calorie burn comes from melting the ice in our vest. Melting 1 lb of ice takes a lot more energy than heating it from just above freezing, up to your body temperature. You'd need to eat several pounds of ice to get the same effect. Not good for your teeth...

And no, you won't get the same effect eating a pound of ice cream. :-)

Where can I get this vest? I live in the studio city area, can I please be a test subject?

We're actually already selling it on 1800IceVest.com. Sales are slow though since most people don't think it's real.

On average, how long do you need to wear the vest to see real results?

Our informal clinical tests have shown users losing 1-2 pounds per week over a 2 week period. Some more, some less. One guy lost 15 pounds over 2 weeks... but he had a lot to lose starting at over 300.

But also, I think the question is, how many hours out of the day?

We recommend wearing it twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening, for 1-2 hours each. But in terms of how much time it actually takes out of your day... it's about 1-2 minutes total. How long does it take to open the freezer, don the vest? About 30 seconds. Same for taking it off. Twice a day = 4 x 30s = 2 minutes.

I live in a region that is usually mildly cold, and we're all used to not heating the home or wearing bulky things when the temperature is 18 degrees Celsius. Why aren't we all skinny? Do you mean to say everyone north or south of the equator eats 1k extra calories a day or heats themselves? That's not chump change calories. As a small female, that's nearly half of my TDEE. Should we start sending heating vests to third world countries to combat starvation?

Why are you using hyperbole on your website such as: "Too much cold exposure [...] can extract so many calories so quickly that it can kill you." Uh, it's not like hypothermia starves you to death. It slows important chemical processes such as getting oxygen to important things like your brain cells, right?

I'll avoid the hyperbole in your own message and just stick to the facts. When people who are not normally exposed to mild cold, are then placed in a room a few hours a day that is at 18C (which is defined as mild cold), and all else is held constant, their body fat goes down measurably, without a concomitant increase in appetite. The key here is mild cold. That is, in a scientifically controlled experiment and changing only one variable (the room temperature), the effect of mild cold is easily measurable --- with a signal well above the noise.

The effect you're talking about---an entire population of people living their normal lives without any controls---makes it far, far more difficult to measure a cold-based effect. The only example I've seen studied in detail is the difference between the Swiss and Germans, who have a very similar diet and lifestyle. Switzerland is colder than Germany on average, and the Swiss are thinner on average than the Germans. It's been studied in more detail than I can put here (see our science page for details).

Also... yes, hypothermia has, as one of its effects, slowing down processes so much that things like oxygen starvation occur. But the base process is still "calories being extracted from your body faster than you can replace them".

Do you use any Supercomputers? If so what is the computer called? How does it work? How big is it? What all does it do?

Yes, I use some of the computer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The COMET cluster. Also sometimes the NASA/JPL Pleiades cluster for climate research. Just google them to find sizes. I think the Pleiades cluster has about a quarter million cores.

What do you teach at UCI? Roughly how many students do you have? How many papers do your students have to write, how many words or pages do they have to be? How many projects do your students have to do and what type of projects are they? And how many different types of classes do you teach and what subject are they?

Computer Science, more specifically scientific computing. About 500 undergraduates per year in class, about 25-50 undergraduates each year as a research mentor, and half a dozen grad students.

We try to publish 5-10 papers a year, although we don't always make it. The papers tend to be 5-10 pages (tiny font, single-spaced) each. You can view my current student research projects at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wayne/research/students

Will you send me a sample vest?

Depends. Do you have a big blog with lots of followers? The vest is a business, after all. We do give away vests but only if there's a chance that it'll generate more sales than the cost of the vest.

Bit late to the party, but would it still do the same job if you were say working out or playing sports? Would the effects be the same? Like could I wear this while jogging and still see the same results or because the body would be warmer from the exercise would it cancel it out?

No, in that case it would just help you stay cool. The calorie-burning effect is only when you're otherwise sedentary, in a room-temperature room. Then it causes you to burn more calories than you'd normally burn sitting on your butt.

Where did you go to college/University? What did you major in?

University of Toronto. I did a double-specialist in astrophysics and computer science, then a Master's in computational physics, then Ph.D. in applied computational mathematics. Which is all a fancy way of saying I use computers to model and analyze real-world data.

What kind of hours do you work? How much of your life do you have to dedicate to your job? Is it as hard as it's made out to be?

Yes, being a scientist is pretty much a 60-80 hour / week job. You must love a job to spend this much time on it. I love it, and would hate working 60-80 hours a week on something I don't love.

And now that I also run a company and have a 18-month-old-baby... I hardly have time to sleep. :-)

Hard but very very rewarding. All of it.

The vest sounds like a load of BS from what I know about biology.

Can you convince me otherwise?

How did you measure changes in metabolic rate in your groups?

Do you have published data?

Would you be able to share the results of your clinical trials?

There's plenty of formal clinical evidence to show the general principle that mild cold burns calories and results in fat loss. See our science page at http://1800IceVest.com/science; there's plenty of citations there.

Changes in metabolic rate can be directly measured using indirect calorimetry, but that's not the whole story. It also induces long-term metabolic changes---tricks your body into thinking it's winter, basically, so it ramps up your metabolic rate to account for the cold weather you're tricking your body into thinking is coming.

No, we do not have published data---a clinical trial would cost about $100k, which we don't have. And yes, I've asked local clinical labs if they'd be interested, but publicly funded labs are only interested in testing things they think are bogus, for the public good. But everybody I show this to says, "duh, of course it'll work. Why would I spend my hard-earned grant money to prove your product works? You need to pay me to do that" . Kind of a catch-22 really.

Also see http://1800IceVest.com/InfoSheet.pdf for a bit of detail about our informal trials.

What do you think of the Show The Bing Bang theory? Do you think it brings anyone into getting interested in Science?

It's Friggin' awesome. I hope it helps people get interested in science.

I once saw Simon Helberg ("Howard") at a show in Hollywood. People were asking for his autograph. Once the crowd dispersed, I walked up and said, "I'm not looking for your autograph, but just curious if you've ever met any real astrophysicists?".

He said, "First, I'm offended you don't want my autograph" (With a smile of course). And then, "I suppose you're one?" We chatted for a bit. He was cool.

Favorite Pizza toppings?

ANSI standard Pizza is pepperoni, mushroom, green peppers.

Where all have you traveled for work?

Oh gawd. At least 30-40 countries. Pretty much everywhere in Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico, US, Canada, Russia.... I've never been to South America yet (nor Antarctica.)

What's the warranty on the vest?

30 days no-questions-asked, 90 days manufacturer. But honestly I've replaced broken vests up to a year. We're pretty informal and take customer satisfaction seriously.

Do you attend any annual conferences/seminars? If so which ones?

Yes. I attend the Division of Dynamical Astronomy conference (a division of the American Astronomical Society) most years. I also attend computational biology conference like RECOMB, among others. Some of my students attend AGU (American Geophysical Union) to present climate change results.

Howdy from Texas!

I'm going to buy one of these tomorrow, I just had a question about the duration. Was the 2-4 hour duration a physical limit of the product was it possible to change a few things to get a longer time frame? If so do you plan on making a version with that longer duration?

The duration is a function only of the amount of ice. Right now it's 9 lbs... which is pretty heavy. Getting longer durations would require... you know... making it heavier. :-) I think 9 lbs is already pushing the limits of what people would want to wear.

Keep in mind that the calorie burn from cold is only effective if you feel the cold. It's designed to be worn indoors, while you would otherwise be comfortable. If you wear it on a hot Texas day in direct sunlight, it won't last that long. It'll help you stay cool for maybe 1-2 hours, but it won't help you burn calories on a hot day.

Do you ship to Canada ?

Of course. I'm from Toronto. Hey, you could probably just leave the vest outside overnight, right? :-)

Doesn't/wouldn't a hypothermic state slow your metabolic rate thus leading to less calories being burned?

Hypothermia is caused by extreme cold. We're dosing extremely mild cold. Not even shiver level. Goose bump level. That's enough to burn excess calories with no uncomfortable or dangerous side effects.

In a hypothetical situation where we can actually colonise and travel between other planets, how do you personally believe we should go about administrating them? For example do we leave the planet to form its own form of autonomous government, or would it be time for the UN to step in and take control? Do begin to draw borders in space?

Currently space is considered international and borderless. I have no idea how it would work, but there are plenty of really good science fiction novels that address those issues in interesting ways. One of my favorites in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. Highly recommended.

So, could I wear say... a sweater OVER the vest? Or would that defeat the purpose?

Sweater over the vest would probably be OK. It may reduce the effect a bit, but a T-shirt under the vest (or nothing) and sweater over should be fine.

I'll bet that after a week you'd be "cured" of feeling cold, though, and would be perfectly happy wearing it without the sweater.

What does the best look like? Also, what would your most important contribution to humanity be?

You can see the vest (2 versions) at 1800IceVest.com.

But my most important contribution to humanity? I educate about 500 students a year in my professor job; and I'm working on cutting-edge research that I hope will have enduring value. Everything from medical research (no, not the ice vest, other people do that reserach) to climate research.

2 questions: If it hasn't been answered yet, how does the Ice Vest work?

Have you ever helped with any of the famous NASA projects (shuttle launches, satellites, etc.)?

You take it out of the freezer, put it on, and go about your day. You will feel a wee bit cold, like jumping into a swimming pool, for a few seconds, and then forget about it. It stimulates your metabolism for a few hours until the ice melts, then you throw it back in the freezer. Wear it twice a day like that and you should burn 1-2 lbs/fat per week.

2nd question: no, not really. I work on computer modelling and data analysis.

Wow, sounds impressive. That's still cool what you do at NASA, also I was wondering what do you teach at the university?

I teach computer science, a specific area called "scientific computing". It's about how to use computers to model and analyze scientific data.

Is NASA in danger of losing funding? If so, who are the best people to call and write to express concern?

Well, it seems the new administration is keen on funding space-based exploration, which is great. But they're also keen to de-fund anything based on climate research. Which sucks. Like, really really sucks. NASA has the space-based knowledge to observe not only outwards, but down from orbit. Nobody else has the expertise there. So it's unfortunate POTUS wants to de-fund NASA's climate research.

Where in Canada did you grow up?

Toronto.

Do you attend UCI Anteaters Sports games? If so which sports? How many per school year?

No, unfortunately not. What with teaching, research, grading, running a company, and a newborn baby.. I barely have time to sleep.

If I had time I'd watch basketball games. Those are fast-paced and exciting. I used to go to Hockey games in Canada (go Leafs!) and baseball (go Jays!) but I've yet to see a Lakers game.

Who were your science role models as a kid?

Einstein. Richard Feynmann. Carl Sagan. More the latter---I was wowed by COSMOS. I know Neil Degrass Tyson (sp?) recently re-did it and I've heard he did a good job but I haven't had a chance.

As a kid did you have a microscope, telescope, mini chemistry lab and all sorts of scientific toys?

I had a store-bought microscope, and I made my own telescope when I was a teenager. I ground my own mirror and went to a paper manufacting plant to get a big cylindrical roll (basically a HUGE toilet paper roll center) for the tube. It was a 4" reflector.

Do you do any writing for books or magazines? If which ones?

No, but I've had stuff written about me---both about my academic research, and about the vest.

Favorite Candy Bar?

Milky Way, of course.