Getty – Contributor As well as global warming, sun cream could be killing off our coral reefs
But now scientists have come up with a fix in which magnetised “nanoparticle” beads soak up the sunblock ingredient, oxybenzone, like a thirsty sea sponge.
They have been modified to specifically bond with oxybenzone when dragged through polluted water.
They hope to use the agent to clean up seawater at beaches.
Dr Felix Roman, of the University of Puerto Rico, said: "Coral bleaching by oxybenzone is a difficult problem, but not an impossible one.
“The idea is that if you dump [the beads] in water, you can pull it out with a magnet.”
An undergraduate student in Roman's laboratory, Ana Zapata, slathered herself in oxybenzone – containing sunblock and stepped into the ocean.
