British researchers have found a way to imbue soap with magnetic properties, which could have huge implications in the way we fight ecosystem-damaging oil spills. Here's why making the slippery stuff magnetic could be a game changer:
Soap helps clean up environmental disasters?
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What's the advantage of making soap magnetic?
It's simple: A detergent that you can move with magnets would be much easier to gather up and remove from the water. "The goal is to create a soap... that can then be picked up out of the environment," says Stephanie Pappas at Live Science, "not just rinsed away."
How did they do it?
Scientists from the University of Bristol added iron-rich salts to create "metallic centers within the soap particles," says Ted Thornhill at Britain's Daily Mail. After the solution was added to water in a test tube, a magnet was used to overpower both gravity and the surface tension of the water, levitating the iron-rich "scrubbing bubbles" so they could be removed.
Can this be applied to other things?
Yep. "Proving that magnetic soaps can be developed" was just the first step on the road to all kinds of new products, says lead researcher Julian Eastoe. "The magnetic soap probably won't be appearing on supermarket shelves anytime soon," says Rebecca Boyle at Popular Science, "but it's an interesting breakthrough" that could lead to everything from new water treatment methods to industrial cleaning products.
Sources: Daily Mail, Live Science, Popular Science, TG Daily
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