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Mixing the Unmixable
markthebrewer writes "From an article in the New Scientist: Conventional wisdom every 15 year-old knows says that you can't mix oil and water without some kind of surfactant. However a team lead by Richard Pashley from the Australian National University in Canberra have done it simply by first removing all dissolved gases from the water. Apart from the obvious potential improvements in salad dressings, it could have an impact on the manufacture of everything from drugs to paint - anywhere an emulsion is required. Apparently, it will also give some insight into the mysterious 'long-range hydrophobic effect' (or why oil droplets coalesce over surprisingly long distances)." Keep in mind the usual scientific caveat: this experiment doesn't seem to have been replicated by other experimenters yet.
But where are these 15-year olds who know what a surfactant is? :)
My dingo ate your honor student.
It's like mixing oil and water, assuming that all of the dissolved gases haven't been removed from the water.
Yeah, that rolls off the tongue.
Can we say Pons and Fleischmann salad dressings?
"Yeah, we were like oil and water without a sulfacant!"
Scientists mix oil and water.
In other news, record sub-zero temperatures in hell.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
"He takes the air out and he doesn't get the long-range hydrophobic force. It doesn't nail the hydrophobic force down, but now we have something to work on," says James Quirk, a chemist at the University of Western Australia in Perth..."
Hydrophobic, eh? So that's the reason they don't mix: the oil is afraid of the water. Neat.
PS I wonder if the chemist's middle initial is T.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
>> "...simply by first removing all dissolved gases from the water."
Ahhh, Once you remove all of the Hydrogen and Oxygen I can see where there would no longer be a problem!!!
Great, hopefully Alton Brown can make a super mayonnaise emulsion based on this theory - super tasty and smooth on the tongue, now that's Good Eats!
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Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
The effect prevents oil's dispersion in water, and means that you can only make oil and water emulsions, such as French dressing for salads, by shaking them and adding stabilising agents. ?
Second of all, the oil/water thing is more of an Italian dressing, I believe; and First of all, we don't call it french dressing any more, we call it Freedom Dressing.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
They discovered it 20 years ago but immediately covered up the knowledge because it could be used to make cars that get 200 miles to the gallon and don't produce greenhouse gasses.
Scientist: I've done it. I've DONE IT! Two parts gin ... one part vermouth ... and an olive. They MIX! Mwuahahaha!
Grad student: Uh, that's just a martini, and not a very dry one.
Scientist: Blast! Well, bottom's up. We'll just change gin to "oil" and vermouth to "water" and publish anyway.