Mixing Cornstarch Into The Top-kill Could Have Stopped Gulf Oil Spill Sooner

From "Cornstarch might have ended the Gulf spill agony sooner" posted on ScienceBlog:

Jonathan Katz, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, ... suggested a simple fix, a change to the mud recipe ... the addition of a shear-thickening polymer like cornstarch to a dense top-kill mud might have allowed slugs of mud to descend against the upwelling oil instead of being ripped up and spat out of the well. Eventually, the column of mud would have prevented any further infiltration from the oil reservoir, killing the well.