> an unlikely new garment for injured penguins — snug red vests threaded with copper and zinc that they hope will help the aquatic birds heal faster.

Ointments with zinc oxide and with basic carbonates of copper were already frequently used in the Greek-Roman Antiquity.

For instance Pliny the Elder described their medicinal uses.

Pure metallic zinc was unknown in the Antiquity, but brass, i.e. the copper-zinc alloy, was in widespread use in the Roman Empire, for various items that were intended to be resistant to rust, e.g. for belt buckles. When brass was smelted, some of the zinc evaporated and it was oxidized by the air, then it condensated as white zinc oxide on the colder parts of the installation, from where it was collected and sold to medicine doctors, for the preparation of medicinal ointments.

The basic carbonates of copper are the green corrosion products that cover copper and bronze objects that are exposed to the atmosphere. In Antiquity, that corroded layer was removed and used in the preparation of ointments.