The sun does shine, sometimes, in Boston – but not like this.
When chemistry professor Grace Han first visited southern California from Boston some years ago, she noticed the difference. How her skin would tingle with the first signs of irritation after just a few hours outside.
Last year, she moved to take a job at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and regularly began wearing a large-brimmed hat, sunglasses and plenty of sun cream. Being a chemistry professor, she had already done her research.
"I was just reading about DNA photochemistry – for leisure," she recalls.
That's when she realised that DNA molecules in people's skin that get damaged by sunburn could help her. Those molecules change shape when irradiated by the sun, flexing into a strained version of their regular form.
