HEAT-loving bacteria from deep-sea vents could soon be protecting your skin
from the ravages of the summer sun.
Using bacteria that have been harvested from the hydrothermal
vents—also known as black smokers—a French cosmetics company has
developed a “smart” ingredient for sun lotions that increases skin protection as
the temperature rises.
Few organisms can survive at the high temperatures and pressures that are
found in hydrothermal vents, yet they remain home to myriads of microbes. Among
these is Thermus thermophilus, a bacterium that thrives at around 75
°C. Now cosmetics company Sederma of Le Perray-en-Yvelines near Paris hopes…
