How Do Polar Bears Keep Ice Off Their Fur? New Study Reveals the Secret--and It Could Improve Technology
The de-icing properties of polar bear sebum could fuel new innovations, scientists say, potentially unlocking alternatives to harmful “forever chemicals” used in ice-resistant coatings today
Sara Hashemi
Daily Correspondent
January 31, 2025
A polar bear near Kaktovik, Alaska. New research reveals how polar bears keep ice off their fur. Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA
Polar bears don’t have to worry about skipping a wash day. The sebum, or natural oil, on the mammals’ fur helps them survive the harsh Arctic weather by making it hard for ice to stick to them, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Senior author Bodil Holst, a physicist at the University of Bergen in Norway, was inspired to investigate polar bear fur after watching a TV quiz program, she tells Michael Le Page at New Scientist. She realized that she had never seen a polar bear covered in ice in any wildlife documentaries, even after they emerged from a dive in below-freezing water.
“And then I thought, well, how come freezing is not a problem? How come you don’t get accumulation of ice on the fur under these circumstances?” says Holst to New Scientist.
To answer those questions, Holst gathered an international team of researchers. The group compared ice resistance in samples of four materials: washed and unwashed polar bear fur, human hair and hair-based ski equipment coated in chemicals called fluorocarbons. They tested the materials by measuring how much force was required to move an ice block off of each one, writes Science’s Alexa Robles-Gil.
Julian Carolan, the study’s lead author and a chemist at Trinity College Dublin, even used his own hair for the research. “It wasn’t that pleasant to do,” he tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni. “I had to let my hair get very greasy over a week, which did not look very good. I then shaved it all off as close as I could to the scalp, which was tough on account of the greasiness. This also left me with a bald head in the cold month of January last year.”
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-do-polar-bears-keep-ice-off-their-fur-new-study-reveals-the-secret-and-it-could-improve-technology-180985941/
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Polar bear hair research could lead to ski and snowboard technology advancements
A team including Irish researchers has found that greasy hair gives polar bears' fur anti-icing properties
After collecting hair from six polar bears in the wild, scientists homed in on the hair 'sebum' (or grease) as the all-important protectant. Picture: Jenny E Ross.
Wed, 29 Jan, 2025 - 19:00
Caroline Delaney
An international team of scientists has discovered the anti-icing secret of polar bear fur — something that allows one of the planet’s most iconic animals to survive and thrive in one of its most punishing climates.
That secret?
Greasy hair.
After collecting hair from six polar bears in the wild, the scientists homed in on the hair 'sebum' (or grease) as the all-important protectant. This sebum, which is made up of cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and fatty acids, makes it very hard for ice to attach to their fur.
A polar bear's insulating fur shown under infrared heat imaging at Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. Picture: Jon Aars, Norsk Polarinstitutt
While this finding sheds fascinating new light on our understanding of polar bear — and even Inuit — ecology, it may also have a suite of unrelated applications, with a similar concoction of artificially made sebum promising to be useful as an anti-ice surface coating, or in next-gen ski skins used by skiers and snowboarders.
Julian Carolan from Meath, a PhD student from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre, is the first author of the journal article, which has been published today (weds, Jan 29) as the cover story in leading international journal Science Advances.
Julian Carolan, a PhD student from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre and Dr Richard Hobbs, Assistant Professor and Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellow in Trinity’s School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre
More:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/arid-41563897.html
