Researchers in Amsterdam have laid the first foundations for a sunscreen based on a molecule found naturally in the skin: urocanic acid. They have published extensive spectroscopic data in two papers in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

‘Many ingredients in sunscreens are under fire because they can have negative side effects on health and the environment, such as damage to coral reefs’, says Wybren Jan Buma, professor of molecular photonics at the University of Amsterdam. ‘This is one of the reasons why my group is researching new molecules for sunscreens that convert harmful UV radiation into harmless heat.’