Defying conventional wisdom, water can float on oil
2012-04-05
(Press-News.org) Defying thousands of years of conventional wisdom, scientists are reporting that it is possible for water to float on oil, a discovery they say has important potential applications in cleaning up oil spills that threaten seashores and fisheries. Their report appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.
Chi M. Phan and colleagues point out that the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made an early attempt to explain flotation around 350 B.C. Today, most people know that less dense liquids float on more dense liquids. So crude oil with a density of about 58 pounds per cubic foot floats on sea water, which has a density of 64 pounds per cubic foot — and not vice-versa. Correct? Phan's team decided to test that notion with computer models and in the lab.
They report that in certain cases, the conventional wisdom is wrong. By adding tiny amounts of water to a floating droplet of oil, they found that the ability of water drops to float at the surface of an oil bath depends on both the size of the droplet and the type of oil. Commercial vegetable oil has enough surface tension – the force between liquid molecules that allows beads of water to form or insects to walk on water -- at its interfaces with air and water to support a droplet's weight, while pure mineral oils do not. At the same time, they found that vegetable oil could not support drops bigger than about one one hundredth of a cubic inch. The authors suggest the new knowledge could help clean up oil spills, where water-borne, oil-eating microbes will mix more easily into the oil if suspended in the tiny droplets they describe. "This result can lead to a new and advanced mechanism in processing oil/water mixtures, such as biodegrading process of unwanted oils, including vegetable oils, sand oil tailings and oil spillages," the authors said.
Click here to view a video of their experiment.
INFORMATION:The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-04-05
The Great Saunter, an annual walk around the rim of Manhattan, offers people a unique way to explore the famous New York borough.
Due to take place for the 27th time on Saturday May 5th this year, the event traditionally attracts walkers from across the Big Apple and around the world.
The 32-mile route begins and ends at the South Street Seaport, passing through 20 parks and providing some spectacular waterside views along the way.
Walkers set off at 07:30 local time, with a break for lunch in Inwood Hill Park at 13:00. The Great Saunter finishes with a celebration ...
2012-04-05
CORAL GABLES, FL (March 20, 2012)—Delayed gratification: People who are good at overcoming their immediate impulses to take small rewards now — in favor of larger rewards down the road — do better in many areas of life, including academic achievement, income, job performance and health. What life experiences develop this ability? A new study published online, ahead of print, by the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, finds that religious people are better able to forgo immediate satisfaction in order to gain larger rewards in the future. The study is the first to demonstrate ...
2012-04-05
The first real-world, head-to-head comparison of "improved cookstoves" (ICs) and traditional mud stoves has found that some ICs may at times emit more of the worrisome "black carbon," or soot, particles that are linked to serious health and environmental concerns than traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires. The report, which raises concerns about the leading hope as a clean cooking technology in the developing world, appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science &Technology.
Abhishek Kar, Hafeez Rehman, Jennifer Burney and colleagues explain that hundreds of millions ...
2012-04-05
The worldwide concert phenomenon Video Games Live will be returning to Malaysia this May for a pair of shows at Kuala Lumpur's Istana Budaya venue.
Following the success of the show's original Malaysian run in 2010, the world's largest videogame concert spectacular will be seen once again on May 26th and 27th at 20:30 local time.
Created by veteran games composer Tommy Tallarico, the event sees the National Symphony Orchestra performing new arrangements of some of gaming's most iconic tunes.
Themes will be taken from famous videogames from across the ages, from ...
2012-04-05
A dose of carbon nanotubes more than doubles the growth rate of plant cell cultures — workhorses in the production of everything from lifesaving medications to sweeteners to dyes and perfumes — researchers are reporting. Their study, the first to show that carbon nanotubes boost plant cell division and growth, appears in the journal ACS Nano.
Mariya V. Khodakovskaya and colleagues explain that their previous research demonstrated that so-called multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can penetrate through the thick coatings on seeds, stimulate germination of the seeds and ...
2012-04-05
Efforts are underway to develop a more environmentally friendly process for dyeing denim with indigo, the storied "king of dyes," used to the tune of 50,000 tons annually to color cotton blue jeans and hundreds of other products. That effort is the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.
In the article, C&EN Assistant Managing Editor Michael McCoy notes that concerns about the environmental effects of indigo represent ...
2012-04-05
Thailand's SailQuest Sailing School is to organise a series of exciting boat races at the SailQuest Samui Regatta in May 2012.
It gets started on May 26th and runs through to June 5th, combining on-the-water competitions and festivities with a number of shore-based tie-in celebrations.
The regatta itself is held between May 29th and June 2nd, with the remaining days dedicated to transporting participants back and forth from the Ocean Marina in Pattaya, where the SailQuest school is based.
A number of different classes of boat will compete in the lavish event, ...
2012-04-05
People with severe depression are constantly despondent, lacking in drive, withdrawn and no longer feel joy. Most suffer from anxiety and the desire to take their own life. Approximately one out of every five people in Germany suffers from depression in the course of his/her life – sometimes resulting in suicide. People with depression are frequently treated with psychotherapy and medication. "However, many patients are not helped by any therapy," says Prof. Dr. Thomas E. Schläpfer from the Bonn University Medical Center for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. "Many spend more ...
2012-04-05
New Rochelle, NY, April 4, 2012—Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, and evidence-based national guidelines promote the use of daily aspirin for women at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. However, less than half of the women who could benefit from aspirin are taking it, according to an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at the Journal of Women's Health website.
"Based on this survey, it is evident that the majority of women for whom aspirin is recommended ...
2012-04-05
Taking the 'White Privilege Pop Quiz' by Molly Secours might reveal the inner racist. The quiz is merely a mirror that reflects how internalized racial biases and fears prevent those classified as white from recognizing, understanding--and ultimately perpetuating--inequities in education, health care, criminal justice and perhaps even premature death. Sample questions from the quiz are on her site, mollysecours.com. In light of the recent, untimely, and racially charged death of Trayvon Martin, Secours posted a blog on the site Redroom that included a few of the questions ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Defying conventional wisdom, water can float on oil
