At a wildlife center in San Diego, caretakers of a black bear cub are using extraordinary measures to keep him from becoming reliant on humans, including donning masks and vintage fur coats.

This new study, published in Science Advances, suggests that mimicking the polar bear ’s biochemical defense could lead to safer, more efficient designs for de-icing coatings. Using advanced quantum ...

This weak interaction is what prevents ice from adhering to the fur.” Experiments confirmed these theoretical findings, measuring ice adhesion strength before and after the fur’s natural oils were ...

So her team used a high-powered microscope and zoomed in on some fur. HOLST: But we couldn't see anything special about the polar bear hairs. They just looked normal.

Polar bears spend their days jumping from ice into water. So if they get all wet, why doesn't their fur freeze? Well, a recent study in the journal Science Advances investigated that very question ...

They just looked normal. LAMBERT: But as she and her colleagues were handling the fur, they noticed that it was really greasy. And when they washed the fur with soap, wet it and froze it, it got icy.

HOLST: We can say that this is what makes polar bear hair grease so efficient. LAMBERT: In fact, the team found that the squalene-free fur grease performed about as well as certain kinds of PFAS ...

HOLST: We can say that this is what makes polar bear hair grease so efficient. LAMBERT: In fact, the team found that the squalene-free fur grease performed about as well as certain kinds of PFAS ...