Warm Strategies: Cooling Down When It's Hot

On hot, muggy days, we think about ways to stay cool. Spending our days soaking in a lake isn't practical, and the costs of air conditioning our homes and offices--equipment, installation, maintenance, and large amounts of electricity--are formidable. Here we've gathered 24 strategies used by organisms that can inspire new ways to cool our buildings, computers, and ourselves. Some are well-known, such as sweating, and some may be unfamiliar, such as ticks pulling water from the air.

Photo by debbiring