Really interesting article, thank you for sharing this one! I recently got my open water scuba certification (as I've been annoyingly bringing up anywhere it's even remotely related lol), and reef safe sunscreen is definitely something we've all talked about. I'm very bald, and so is my instructor, so sunscreen is definitely on both of our minds.
I was kind of surprised that the article says ZnO causes coral bleaching! I wonder if that's the nanoparticle ZnO formulations (which have become more popular because you can rub them in and they disappear, unlike the microparticle ZnO which looks white no matter how much you rub it). I've definitely some sources that claim nanoscale ZnO (or TiO2) is not reef safe in the way the the microscale particles are, maybe that's what this is talking about?
In any case, this is very cool research. This whole sub-field where biology and chemical/materials engineering intersect has always fascinated me.
Also, not science, but:
While studying how these organisms interact with light, he and his colleagues found that some are very good at absorbing ultraviolet light...
