SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
It's time now for our science news roundup from Short Wave, NPR's science podcast, And I'm joined in the studio by Regina Barber and Emily Kwong. Hi to both of you in person.
EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: Hi.
REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: Hello.
PFEIFFER: So as usual, you have brought us three science stories that caught your attention this week. What are the three?
BARBER: How future sunscreens might come from fish.
KWONG: How being an art lover may impact how you age.
BARBER: And one student's quest to build a more affordable, sustainable marimba, the beautiful percussion instrument.
PFEIFFER: Interesting. All right, we're entering summer. That means sunscreen season.
KWONG: Yes.
PFEIFFER: Why don't you start with the sunscreen ingredient inspired by fish?
KWONG: Yeah, Sacha, it's been over 25 years since the FDA approved a new ingredient for sunscreen in the U.S., but there is a promising candidate, a molecule called gadusol. It's found in some fish and coral reefs. But if we want to incorporate this molecule into human sunscreen, we're going to need to make a lot of it. And a new study out this week in the journal Trends In Biotechnology takes us a big step closer.
PFEIFFER: A molecule in fish and coral that is almost like built-in sunscreen - how does that work?
BARBER: So it absorbs UV rays, protecting fish from getting sunburned. That's how chemical sunscreens protect us humans. Researchers discovered gadusol in codfish eggs around 40 years ago, but it's also found in coral reef ecosystems, zebra fish and salmon eggs.
KWONG: And in this study, researchers did a whole series of engineering experiments to make more of this superpowered molecule.
PFEIFFER: I'm going to note that I'm really good about wearing sunscreen, but the few times I've gotten slightly burned, I'm in the water, and so it's interesting that the fish had this protection.
BARBER: They figured it out.
PFEIFFER: So what kind of engineering experiments were done in this study?
BARBER: Well, they turned to the workhorse of biology labs everywhere, E. coli bacteria.
PFEIFFER: Ugh.
BARBER: Yeah. And they programmed the bacteria to pump out a bunch of gadusol, which is a lot easier and more sustainable than trying to harvest it from other sources like fish eggs.
PFEIFFER: And meanwhile, by the way, the fish don't have to slather or spray sunscreen all over themselves.
BARBER: Nope.
PFEIFFER: It's just built-in.
BARBER: So lucky.
KWONG: Evolution did that. Yup.
PFEIFFER: All right. So now that researchers have figured out how to produce this stuff more efficiently, what are the chances it becomes an actual product on store shelves and when?
KWONG: Yeah, it'll be a while still. We talked to James Gagnon. He's a developmental biologist at the University of Utah, where he studies gadusol. He didn't work on this study, by the way. But he said future research will be needed to figure out how to mix this ingredient with all the other things that go into sunscreen, to make it something you can spread on your skin, and then the FDA would have to approve it.
BARBER: But James thinks the study was a big step towards more gadusol research and maybe even more research on the amazing properties of marine creatures.
JAMES GAGNON: They've been facing the challenge of the sun hitting them since basically the origin of life on Earth. And so they've evolved a million amazing solutions we haven't explored. I think gadusol's just the tip of the iceberg on this.
KWONG: Another big plus for gadusol - James says it only absorbs harmful wavelength, not visible light.
GAGNON: So this opens the door to sunscreens that will not make you pasty white.
PFEIFFER: So interesting. All right, now I want to know how the arts might affect aging. Tell us about that one.
BARBER: So researchers in the U.K. just published a study that suggest engaging in artistic activities weekly could slow aging to a similar extent as mild exercise. Participants who sang, danced, painted, went to museums, seemed a year younger biologically.
KWONG: Yeah, and this finding comes from a study of more than 3,500 adults in the U.K. Those results appear in the journal Innovation In Aging.
PFEIFFER: And how are these scientists measuring whether you're biologically younger?
BARBER: Yeah, I spoke with lead researcher and epidemiologist Daisy Fancourt at University College London. She says that by looking at the participants' DNA from blood samples, you can see the effects of age. So some older DNA strands are harder to read.
DAISY FANCOURT: It's a bit like pages in a book getting sticky. And as we get older, there are particular patterns of sticky pages that tend to occur.
KWONG: The research team compared that biological data to survey data from the participants, where the participants shared what sort of activities they did and how often. The researchers found that artsy people who sang, danced, painted and so on tended to have biologically younger-looking DNA. Daisy thinks all of this might be because studies have shown engaging in the arts is known to lower stress, reduce inflammation and is good for heart health.
PFEIFFER: I think I need to pick up painting or something...
BARBER: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: ...To try to slow my own...
BARBER: Like, instantly.
PFEIFFER: ...Aging process (laughter).
KWONG: We should have a dance party, like, right after this.
PFEIFFER: But, you know, you can imagine I'm going to ask this. There could be other factors.
KWONG: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: Like, people who go to dance classes or museums may have more money, and more money can mean better health, and they also might have...
KWONG: That's true.
PFEIFFER: ...More free time, maybe...
KWONG: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: ...Less stressed out. So what about those factors?
BARBER: Right. I asked Daisy that, too, and her team controlled for all of that and still saw these results. And their study did include a large, socioeconomically diverse population of adults. And when reporting this, I also wondered if these results might be because people are often connecting with other people when doing these activities, so could these people just be healthier because they were more social? So Daniel Belsky, another epidemiologist I talked to who didn't work on the study, thought that could be a factor.
DANIEL BELSKY: People who report being socially isolated and lonely tend to exhibit a faster pace of aging than people who have richer social networks.
KWONG: So Sacha, maybe call your friends or plan a date with your husband to go to the museum this weekend.
PFEIFFER: He's not a big museum guy, but I'm going to tell him that Regina and Emily told us to go.
KWONG: (Laughter).
BARBER: That's right. Science.
PFEIFFER: Exactly. So your third one is about music, the band room, the marimba. Tell us about that one.
KWONG: Yes. So Amartya Bhattacharyya was in ninth grade, high school band, when he discovered the marimba.
AMARTYA BHATTACHARYYA: I remember going into my school's room and hearing this beautiful five-octave Yamaha rosewood marimba for the first time.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARIMBA PLAYING)
BHATTACHARYYA: Its tone is so rich and beautiful, especially on the low register, that at that moment, I fell in love with the instrument for what it is.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARIMBA PLAYING)
KWONG: The music you're hearing just now is the marimba. It looks kind of like a xylophone, though it's made of wooden bars, you play it by hitting those bars with mallets, and it comes with an enormous price tag. Prices range, but this five-octave marimba costs $32,000...
PFEIFFER: Whoa.
KWONG: ...Making it the most expensive instrument in Amartya's band room.
PFEIFFER: What accounts for that price tag?
BARBER: Yeah. The biggest reason is the material for the wooden bars, the Honduran rosewood. This wood is responsible for that gorgeous sound but has a very slow growth cycle and is the target of over harvesting, illegal logging, resulting in a highly restricted trade. All this drives up the cost of the marimba.
PFEIFFER: So I hope someone is looking into alternative materials so we can still hear the music without compromising all this wood.
BARBER: Definitely, yes. Now a rising second year at Northeastern University, Amartya developed a methodology for testing out 17 different woods, cutting them into bars and testing three properties in particular - so their density, stiffness and sustain. The sustain is what allows those notes to ring out.
KWONG: So Amartya ran his test, and a lot of the alternative materials sounded terrible. Here's bamboo plywood.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF BAMBOO CLICKING)
PFEIFFER: Ugh.
KWONG: And here's a composite of wood and 3D-printed plastic.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMPOSITE CLICKING)
KWONG: But then he had a breakthrough. Here's cherry wood.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHERRY WOOD MARIMBA PLAYING)
PFEIFFER: Oh.
BARBER: Ooh.
KWONG: And the best one, hickory.
(SOUNDBITE OF HICKORY MARIMBA PLAYING)
PFEIFFER: Oh.
KWONG: (Laughter).
BARBER: I like cherry better.
KWONG: Though hickory was the closest natural match to Honduran rosewood in terms of density, stiffness and sustain while being more affordable. Amartya presented these findings at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America this week. And mind you, this research was not peer-reviewed.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter) I really love that he did this research.
BARBER: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: So what could this mean for the band rooms of the future?
BARBER: Yeah. Amartya considers this an exploratory study in terms of what materials are out there and what has potential.
BHATTACHARYYA: I don't think, like, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is gonna take their rosewood marimba and throw it out and replace it with the hickory one.
KWONG: But he does hope that this study could someday make the marimba more accessible for everyone, especially student musicians in low-income school districts.
PFEIFFER: That is Emily Kwong and Regina Barber from NPR's science podcast Short Wave. Thanks to both of you for coming in in person.
KWONG: Thank you, Sacha.
BARBER: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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