This experiment showed that the ice adhesion of unwashed polar bear fur is exceptionally low. While the often-accepted ...

After a summer of fasting on land, the bears need to get back to their frozen home to hunt seals and bulk up. But their migration ritual is changing.

Polar bears don’t have to worry about skipping a wash day. The sebum, or natural oil, on the mammals’ fur helps them survive ...

Scientists have quantified how much climate change has driven the population decline of polar bears living in Canada's Hudson Bay.

Julian Carolan says researchers are looking at polar bear grease because it repels ice. That property could help replace the ...

Polar bears on ice in Northern Canada. Nano-physicist Bodil Holst's interest in polar bear fur began while she was watching a German quiz show. "I learned that polar bears are invisible in ...

“Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick. In contrast, when the polar bear hair was washed and the grease largely removed it performed similarly to human hair, to which ice sticks ...

But, Holst noticed, polar bear fur did not freeze after getting wet. "I was very puzzled," she says. "When they go into the water and out again, why do they not get covered in ice?" The work could ...