Frontpage » Tag » oil

News tagged with oil

World's first magnetic soap produced

Scientists from the University of Bristol have developed a soap, composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water, that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution. The soap's magnetic properties were ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Functionalized graphene oxide plays part in next-generation oil-well drilling fluids

Graphene's star is rising as a material that could become essential to efficient, environmentally sound oil production. Rice University researchers are taking advantage of graphene's outstanding strength, ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Castor oil: Action mechanism of one of the oldest drugs known to man elucidated

Castor oil is known primarily as an effective laxative; however, it was also used in ancient times with pregnant women to induce labour. Only now have scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Nanotube 'sponge' has potential in oil spill cleanup

(Phys.org) -- A carbon nanotube sponge that can soak up oil in water with unparalleled efficiency has been developed with help from computational simulations performed at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

First 'microsubmarines' designed to help clean up oil spills

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of the first self-propelled "microsubmarines" designed to pick up droplets of oil from contaminated waters and transport them to collection facilities. The report ...

Technology / Engineering

created May 02, 2012 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Iran oil sector hit by 'cyber attack'

A voracious virus attack has hit computers running key parts of Iran's oil sector, forcing authorities to unplug its main oil export terminal from the Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team, according ...

Technology / Internet

created Apr 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1

Nanosponges soak up oil again and again

(Phys.org) -- Researchers at Rice University and Penn State University have discovered that adding a dash of boron to carbon while creating nanotubes turns them into solid, spongy, reusable blocks that have ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Envisat - biggest environment satellite - goes silent

The European Space Agency said Thursday it had lost contact with Envisat, the biggest Earth-monitoring satellite in history.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

NREL catalyst brings drop-in fuels closer

We live in a petroleum-based society, and the oil we use comes from plants that were buried eons ago and changed under pressure and high temperatures. As countries across the globe face dwindling oil supplies ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study reveals unprecedented impact of Deepwater Horizon on deep ocean

Scientists report they have "compelling evidence" that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has impacted deep-sea corals. Their study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences utiliz ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Study confirms oil from Deepwater Horizon disaster entered food chain in the Gulf of Mexico

Since the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, scientists have been working to understand the impact that this disaster has had on the environment. For ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Study reveals why our ancestors switched to bipedal power

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our earliest ancestors may have started walking on two limbs instead of four in a bid to monopolise resources and to carry as much food as possible in one go, researchers have found.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (15) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

University team says Canadian oil sands mining plans don’t include damage to peatlands

(PhysOrg.com) -- David Schindler and colleagues at the University of Alberta have published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which they detail what they believe is the true i ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 5 | with audio podcast report

Mathematical methods help predict movement of oil and ash following environmental disasters

When oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in late April 2010, friends asked George Haller whether he was tracking its movement. That's because the McGill engineering professor has been working for years ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Mar 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research team develops better iron catalyst to help turn plant material into plastic

(PhysOrg.com) -- As most people know, modern plastics are made from crude oil derivatives, making them vulnerable to price and supply fluctuations, which in the end means an alternative must be found in order for the plastics ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Feb 17, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Oil

An oil is a substance that is in a viscous liquid state ("oily") at ambient temperatures or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic (immiscible with water) and lipophilic (miscible with other oils, literally). This general definition includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures, properties, and uses, including vegetable oils, petrochemical oils, and volatile essential oils. Oil is a nonpolar substance.

The term oil is often used colloquially to refer to petroleum.

For more information about Oil, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.