Science - Uses for Human Hair

People laughed when the suggestion was made to use human hair to soak up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, but that idea is not so offbeat. It was also suggested to help with the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Try this experiment after your next haircut:
Fill a bucket with water. Add enough cooking oil so that you can see the oil floating in the water. Next, cut the foot off an old pair of nylon stockings (pantyhose), stuff it with hair, and tie the end shut. Put the bundle into the bucket of water and watch it collect the oil. It really works!

Woman have long known that the oil from human hair keeps sewing needles sharp and rust-free. They used to keep the hair from their hairbrushes in "hair catchers," and when they had enough, they would use it to stuff a pincushion.

Human hair has been woven to produce fabric for clothing, and twisted to make rope.

Recently, it has also been used as a substitute for silicon in solar panels.

It also has applications in agriculture and the food industry. It is being woven into mats and uses to keep moisture in and weeds out in gardens and fields around the world. In some countries, because food is scarce and hair is high in protein, oil is separated from hair and processed to become a substitute for soybean oil.

Of course, we can't forget the more obvious uses for human hair. It is still used in wigmaking, and cosmetic testing.

Can you think of any other ways to recycle human hair?

Reading, Social Studies and Today in History All in One Post!

On this date, September 20, 1878, Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, MD. Sinclair was was a muckraker, which means he was an investigative journalist who dug beneath the surface to find the story beneath. It wasn't always pretty.

In 1904, Sinclair spent several weeks working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking industry. The result was his novel, The Jungle, which was published in 1906. It exposed the horrendous conditions, not only for the workers, but also of the food that was being produced for the American public. The novel cause such a public outcry that, with a few months of publication, the government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act.

If you have never read The Jungle, pick it up sometime. It will make you appreciate your food and your working conditions!

Sinclair went on to write many other novels. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for Dragon's Teeth. Another of his books, Oil!, was the basis for the 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Upton Sinclair died in 1968, at the age of 90.