COULD dandruff help determine the world’s climate?
Ruprecht Jaenicke of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Mainz in Germany collected air samples from Germany, Siberia, the Amazon rainforest, the south Atlantic and bubbles in Greenland ice, then analysed particles suspended in them. He found that 25 per cent of atmospheric particles are organic detritus (Science, vol 308, p 73). He estimates that around a billion tonnes of bio-aerosols enter the atmosphere every year, 20 times previous estimates. By reflecting or absorbing the sun’s rays and encouraging cloud formation, they could influence the climate.
