I have heard about an investigation into whether oil and salt make a difference with pasta cooking. The author claims that it is all about the total amount of water that you use, and that if you use sufficient water and stir, the pasta doesn't stick. Oil is only useful for the stage where you store the pasta after cooking, and salt doesn't really do anything.

Of course, then I also heard about another person who claimed we were all wasting energy by using too much water to boil pasta.