Our excellent freelance science writer Elizabeth Svoboda has a story today on our sister site, Wired News, that can satisfy both the scientifically curious and vain among us. University of Kentucky scientists are devising a self-tanner that will look natural as well as protect us from skin cancer if studies in mice bear out in humans. It should work so well because it activates many of the same molecular machinery as lying in the sun, without the damaging effects.
Apologies for the sad state of these mice. But the images are instructional as to the tanning potion's ability to increase melanin and reduce melanoma. In the circle on the right, the dark spots indicate increased melanin as compared with the control mouse on the left.
