Canadian geese are just one example of the wildlife population that is devastated by oil spills.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of Corel Corporation

A Hairy Situation!
News story originally written on April 29, 1998

Stories of 'ordinary' (often unexpecting) people who make 'extraordinary' discoveries have always intrigued me. So when I ran across this story, I knew I had to report this rather hairy incident!

Oil spills in the last two decades have received an awful lot of news coverage - partly because of the devastation caused to the environment, partly because there didn't seem to be any good/quick/cheap way of fixing the damage that had been done. I think many of you will remember seeing geese, ducks and otters, soaked with black crude oil, limply hanging in the net of a spill rescue member.

An inspiration of Phillip McCrory of Alabama may bring about new recovery techniques for oil spilled in water. McCrory was watching television coverage of 1989's oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. "I saw an otter being rescued whose fur was saturated with oil," said McCrory. "I thought, if animal fur can trap and hold spilled oil, why can't human hair?" You see, McCrory is a hairdresser in Alabama.

McCrory starting experimenting at home. Using his son's wading pool and a pair of his wife's panty hose stuffed with human hair, he went to work creating (and cleaning up!) his own mini oil spill. "When I pulled the legs of the hosiery ring together, the oil had adsorbed onto the hair inside of it," McCrory said. "I couldn't see a trace of oil in the water." McCrory found that human hair adsorbs oil. Adsorbtion means that the oil gathers in layers on the hair's surface. By squeezing the hair bundle, the oil can be recovered and reused as fuel.

After a lot more patent research McCrory realized, "I'd found a commercial use for what's really a waste product. Tons of human hair are cut every day and tossed into landfills."

McCrory lives near Marshall, Alabama, home of NASA's Center Technology Transfer Office. After meeting with NASA, the Center has agreed to take on controlled laboratory testing. All initial tests have been successful - McCrory's method is quick and certainly cheaper than current cleanup methods.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

1999--A Year in Review...

It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,...more

STS-95 Launch: "Let the wings of Discovery lift us on to the future."

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:19 p.m. EST, October 29th. The sky was clear and the weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit for the Unitied...more

Moon Found Orbiting Asteroid

A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon...more

U.S. is Fed Up with Russia

Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials are demanding an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting...more

More on Recent Coronal Mass Ejection

During a period of about two days in early May, 1998, the ACE spacecraft was immersed in plasma associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME). The SWICS instrument on ACE, which determines unambiguously...more

Mother Nature's Air Conditioning

J.S. Maini of the Canadian Forest Service has referred to forests as the "heart and lungs of the world." Forests reduce soil erosion, maintain water quality, contribute to atmospheric humidity and cloud...more

Planetary Alignment 2002

In late April through mid-May 2002, all five naked-eye planets are visible simultaneously in the night sky! This is includes Mercury which is generally very hard to see because of its proximity to the...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA