Working in the garden, cooking on a hot day, or in the middle of the night, when a hot flash hits. These are times when people will go to great lengths to cool off.

Fortunately NASA, or some other rocket science agency, discovered Polyacrylamide Crystals, then some crazy designer figured out how to put them in fabric. Thus was a cooling phenomenon born: the cooling scarf.

The scarves have a layer of these non-toxic crystals under a layer of fabric. You soak the scarf in water -- the crystals can hold up to 400 times their own weight in water -- and then wear the scarf while the water evaporates. The process of evaporation cools the cartoid arteries in your neck, and you feel relief from the heat.

Now, we have to admit they aren't the most chic scarves you'll ever find, but when you're about to pass out from heat exhaustion...sporty is doable.

And yes, this is the same technology that makes all of those dog cooling gadgets work. We're glad to say that science is species blind.