This roe’s got a fish-E surprise

In looking for better antioxidants, an international team of scientists has stumbled onto a new form of vitamin E.

Because oxidants can damage cells, many species load up their eggs—the embodiment of their future—with antioxidants, especially vitamins C and E. While studying such antioxidants in the eggs of chum salmon, Yorihiro Yamamoto of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues found that 20 percent of the vitamin E, or alpha-tocopherol, exhibited a variant structure.