Fighting Dandruff and Monitoring Oceans

It turns out that an ingredient in dandruff shampoo contains more potential than just clearing up scalp problems—it also may help unlock secrets of the oceans and serve as a key indicator about the future of life.

Tom Johnson, associate professor of geology, and other scientists at the University of Leicester in England are using selenium to investigate how the oxygen content of oceans has changed. The study—the first attempt by scientists to use the element in this way—involves measuring isotopic ratios of selenium in sediment. Selenium is a nutrient and antioxidant.

The work could provide information about an ocean’s changing oxygen content, which indicates “overall health” of oceans, according to the University of Leicester. Some evidence indicates changing fish populations are associated with variations in oxygen levels in the oceans.

Determining the oxygen content of oceans has historically been very difficult. The scientists are using samples from the Venezuelan coast, where oxygen levels have changed during the past 500,000 years, according to Andrew Shore, a PhD student at the University of Leicester. He began this research while studying a year abroad at the University of Illinois.

Shore and Johnson are also working with Gawen Jenkin at Leicester. The work is funded by the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society.