Tropical Coral Sunscreen

Resource:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-tropical-coral-sunscreens-human-scientists.html


Have you ever actually thought about what's in sunscreen? Well researchers at King's College London have discovered that coral actually produces natural sunscreen compounds to protect itself from the suns harmful UV rays. Now they think coral can be used to create another type of sunscreen for humans. Researchers have started to study how the compounds are processed and hope to synthetically re create them in order to create a revolutionary new sunscreen. Coral is an animal in which algae lives within it. Algae uses photosynthesis to create food for the coral while the corals waste is used for the photosynthesis. The coral lives in shallow water because the photosynthesis needs sunlight to work which makes the coral more vulnerable to sunburn. What is very interesting is that the fish that feed off of the coral also have developed a sunblock. Since the scientists see that it can be passed on, they think if they can re create it they could eventually make it into a tablet! Scientists are also wondering if they can re create the sunblock for plants so certain plants can grow in areas of the world where the sun is very strong. For example, we could grow vegetables in Africa to help feed the starving people. This could make a huge impact throughout world and in human society. This would also help prevent the effects of global warming.