SINGAPORE - So you find yourself wanting to move closer to the Arctic Circle? Do you let out an involuntary sigh when you stand close to the chiller section at the supermarket? If this sweltering season has you down, you do not have to go gently into the boiling night. There are portable devices to make you feel cooler or at least feel less like a bao in a steamer basket.

Regarding the use of cooling gadgets, Associate Professor Jason Lee, Department of Physiology, and Co-Lead, Human Potential Translational Research Programme, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, thinks they have some value for folks at rest needing to feel less stuffy.