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rhamphotheca:

Hippo Secretions May One Day Protect Humans From Sunburn

by Red Orbit Staff

( 2009)  A new study suggests that a red-colored glandular secretion known as “hippo sweat” contains microscopic structures that scatter light, protecting the hefty mammals from burns, Discovery News reported. The scientific community is already looking into developing a similar product inspired by hippo sweat that could benefit humans.

The study’s co-author Christopher Viney said it would also be beneficial to replicate the antiseptic and insect-repellent characteristics of the sweat, to obtain a four-in-one product made up of sunscreen, sunblock, antiseptic and insect repellent. The researchers asked staff at Fresno’s Chaffee Zoo to retrieve the oily secretion from an indoor enclosure where the zoo’s hippos had rested. The study leaders noticed that after several months of storage, the red sweat showed no signs of yeast, bacteria or fungal contamination.

The team studied the sweat under microscopic analysis and found that it contained two types of liquid crystalline structures: banded and non-banded. The banded structures are “characterized by concentric dark rings” when viewed under certain magnification”, Viney said. He said that those rings were the result of a structural periodicity that occurs on a scale comparable to the wavelengths of visible light, meaning that the sweat is an effective scatterer of light that combines both sun-blocking and sun-screening properties…

(read more: Red Orbit)