Senior author Bodil Holst, a physicist at the University of Bergen in Norway, was inspired to investigate polar bear fur after watching a TV quiz program, she tells Michael Le Page at New Scientist.

The bears’ ability to slide on their abdomens with minimal friction between fur and ice helps prevent the seals from taking notice. Inuit people made sandals from polar bear pelts to move in ...

“It’s something that I had never really thought deeply about: is there something unique about their fur?” Applying each group’s research strengths, the team demonstrated that the oils in polar bear ...

A polar bear's insulating fur shown under infrared heat imaging taken with a FLIR E75 24o (FLIR Systems OÜ, Estonia) Svalbard Archipelago, Norway.