Reference Terms
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Gasoline
Gasoline is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. Before internal combustion engines were invented in the mid-1800s, gasoline was sold in small bottles as a treatment against lice and their eggs. This treatment method is no longer common because of the inherent fire hazard and the risk of dermatitis. Gasoline is produced in oil refineries. Material that is separated from crude oil via distillation, called natural gasoline, does not meet the required specifications for modern engines, but will form part of the blend.
The bulk of a typical gasoline consists of hydrocarbons with between 5 and 12 carbon atoms per molecule. Many of these hydrocarbons are considered hazardous substances and, in the United States, are regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
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Matter & Energy News
April 8, 2026
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Mar. 31, 2026 Scientists have transformed a groundbreaking 2D nanomaterial called MXene into an even more powerful 1D form—tiny scroll-like tubes that are incredibly thin yet highly conductive. By rolling flat ...
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Mar. 31, 2026 Scientists have taken lasers beyond light and into the realm of sound, creating a breakthrough “phonon laser” that manipulates tiny vibrations at the quantum level. By dramatically reducing noise ...
Mar. 31, 2026 Perovskite crystals can dramatically and reversibly change shape when hit with light, a behavior not seen in conventional semiconductors. This effect, called photostriction, can be finely tuned depending on the light’s intensity and color. ...
Mar. 29, 2026 A new holographic storage technique uses light in three dimensions to dramatically increase how much data can be stored. It encodes information throughout a material using amplitude, phase, and ...
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Mar. 28, 2026 Scientists have created a new kind of carbon material that could make carbon capture much cheaper and more efficient. By carefully controlling how nitrogen atoms are arranged, they found certain structures capture CO2 better and release it using far ...
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Apr. 8, 2026 A bizarre, record-breaking neutrino detected in 2023 may have originated from an exploding primordial black hole—a relic from the early universe. ...
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Mar. 30, 2026 Scientists at the University of Waterloo have uncovered a bold new way to explain how the universe began—one that could reshape our understanding of the Big Bang. Instead of relying on ...
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