This is scientific American's 60 second science. I'm Christopher Intalyata. Got a minute?

Anyone who's gone snorkeling at a coral reef lately may have been discouraged from slathering on too much sunscreen.

In some places, the non-biodegradable skin protection is actually banned.

That's because researchers reckon that some 4 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen flowed off the skin of snorkelers each year, enveloping

corals in a cloud of chemicals, chemicals that can sicken or bleached the coral.

But a more eco-friendly way of saving our skin

might be to copy nature's tricks.

Algy and cyanobacteria both produce sunlight absorbing compounds.

So do reef-dwelling fish in the protective slime on their bodies.

Researchers isolated those molecules called mycosporeans, which absorb both UVA and UVB rays.

Mycosporeans have actually been used before in a few SPF products,

but in a form that can both penetrate our skin and easily wash off.

So the biochemists attach the mycosporian to kaido-san,

a polymer derived from the shells of shrimp and crabs. This hybrid package, they say,

is a more effective sunscreen, with constituents too big

capacity of the skin and it's more resistant to washing off. It's also

hypoallogenic and didn't affect cell development in in vitro tests. The findings appear in the journal

Applied Materials and Interfaces. The researchers say that besides providing a

superior sunscreen, this material could also lead to more durable paints and plastics.

Think lawn chairs and other outdoor items that take a beating from light and heat.

And to be clear, this stuff isn't being bottled just yet but it could be soon they say which

could help protect the environment in addition to saving our skin.

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