"Could Cornstarch Have Plugged BP's Oil Well?"

As a kids' plaything, it's called oobleck -- a cornstarch suspension that flows at slow speeds but freezes into a solid when you try to move it fast. Washington University scientist Jonathan Katz has just published an article saying it might have succeeded in a "top kill" of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf well where ordinary drilling mud failed.

Richard Harris reports for NPR's Weekend Edition March 5, 2011.