New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill

[kpete]

Source: Associated Press

New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID (AP) – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a new report released on Tuesday scientists say they discovered the microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

They said the microbe works without seriously reducing the oxygen in the water, which they had feared.

The new study was led by Terry Hazen at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., and appears in the online journal Sciencexpress.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSO6K9Wl5VPIVTtFT97jsuSivjgQD9HPVLD80

---

Microbes (circled) are degrading oil in the deepwater plume from the BP oil spill in the Gulf, a study by Berkeley Lab researchers has shown. (Science/AAAS)

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/24/oil-eating-microbe-gulf-spill.html?ref=rss#ixzz0xYQMIYck

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Here's a science fiction scenario -

New oil-eating microbe was genetically engineered specifically to deal with problems like the Gulf disaster. However, everything runs on oil. Everything is made of plastic, which is made from oil. Microbe doesn't stop with dining on oil spills. It rapidly begins to consume any and all unprotected oil and plastic.

Society grinds to a halt.

[Downwinder]

8. Does it like sun tanning oil? n/t

[MissMarple]

9. Society grinds to a halt as the microbes rapidly travel up inland waterways in search of more oil

products. Big oops. ;)

[cowman]

11. That kinda

sounds like that Will Smith movie, I am Legend, which btw was a great movie.

[AsahinaKimi]

15. Better yet...

Oil eating microbe consumes all oil and grows to tremendous size, eventually becoming one giant Monster..consuming everything in its path..


Maybe this explains the movie..Cloverfield (2008)

[cosmicone]

17. Old news .... that monster already exists ..

his name is Dick Cheney.

[Vehl]

16. this might be the result of some cold war era black projects , tune into Sci Fi Channel Originals!

I rem reading somewhere that a lot crazy stuff were researched..including machines/microbes that might render enemy oil reserves inoperable

did some escape into the ocean:P ...like in those "Sci Fi Channel Original" movies?

:tv:

:popcorn:

[Nihil]

39. Already written (1971) ...

... "Mutant 59 (The Plastic Eater)"



Haven't read it since then (it was a library book) but I enjoyed it at the time.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/gerry-davis/mutant-59.htm

[zogofzorkon]

44. Its been written.

Read it in the 60's or early 70's. I don't know whether this stuff (sf) is foretelling the future or causing it but it is very thought provoking. The one about the whales beaching themselves is another example.

[24601]

53. Plot is like The Andromeda Strain n/t

[sofa king]

56. Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/gerry-davis/mutant-59.htm

We should ban science fiction from the 1970s. It is sure to predict our undoing.

[Vidar]

63. That was a fun read. Thanks for the memory.

[Nihil]

64. Another interesting thing about this sub-thread ...

... is that it lets me guess who else has me on ignore ... :P

[zogofzorkon]

65. or who posts before reading the whole thread

yes that would be me

[sofa king]

68. And me.

I thought to myself, "I picked up that book at the library in 1978, when people still wrote their names on the check-out card, and saw I was only the second person to check it out since 1972, so nobody could possibly have read it but me."

And I'm not ignoring you, Nihil! I'm just terribly self-important!

[Nihil]

69. Aww ...

... thanks you two - just when I was starting to feel all alone
and unloved!

:-)

[superconnected]

2. BULLSHIT! If there is a microbe then BP scientist put it there, and I say, if there "is".

Looks like either lies /or frankenscience where this microbe was created to eat oil. In fact, if it was, you can bet it was created for something far worse.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. Yes, and that global warming is just another myth too, and the world is flat...

All that round earth evidence was crated by a bunch of Galileo loving scientists.

:sarcasm:

[superconnected]

28. Maybe if you open your eyes...

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/05/on_second_t...

"Terry Hazen, the esteemed microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, on how to soak up the oil: "One tactic for reducing the amount of oil in the Gulf would be to seed the affected waters with absorbent materials -- for example cellulose fibers or animal hair -- that can soak up oil." (underlining ours)"

"First, he claims that this is just an excerpt of many suggestions he made to the Times. Rather than advocating for hair, he was simply pointing out that sorbents -- absorbent materials -- of any sort could be used to gather oil. "


"Even if you do use hair -- and, if it were sterilized, human hair would work as well as animal hair -- there's another problem. First, you toss tons of hair in the water. Then, after it absorbs oil, you haul it out. Then you've got to take the resultant muck and pitch it into a a prepared bed -- "it could be in a parking lot, it could be in a cement container of some type" -- and add keratinophilic fungi, which produce enzymes that break down both the hair and the oil. "

[Ozymanithrax]

29. The article is talking about micorbes that eat oil. These have been known to exist..

since at least the 70's.

BULLSHIT! If there is a microbe then BP scientist put it there, and I say, if there "is". Looks like either lies /or frankenscience where this microbe was created to eat oil. In fact, if it was, you can bet it was created for something far worse.

Denying science that has been proven for 30 years and more is no different thant global warming denial or denying evolution.

[superconnected]

32. I'm not denying science. Look further down the thread.

The microbes are there but this says it's a "NEWLY DISCOVERED MICROBE" and it says that the microbes can be grown with fertilizer which can cause dead zones.

[Phil The Cat]

7. I've heard about oil-eating Bacteria since the 1970s

Much away little germs! Munch away!

The tragedy NEVER should have happened to begin with, but it did! And the people who were responsible should be locked away!

But please let's not allow a proper wish for justice turn into a visceral, mean-spirited Schadenfreude, accompanied by a death wish for the Gulf in order to prove a point!

As far as microbes CREATED to eat oil - that's possible even probable, but nature has been dealing with millions of gallons a year of oil naturally seeping into the oceans, and particularly into the Gulf of Mexico, literally for EONS!

I suspect nature is going to be far more competent at dealing with this than we are!

Note: Edited for misspelling

[superconnected]

24. This one says newly discovered. I'm not buying.

[Xithras]

30. There are a number of species that have long been known to consume oil

As the article explains, it's long been known that there's a species in the gulf that is closely related to other, known, oil consuming species. The current assumption is adaptation, but it's possible that they've been there all along. There has always been a small amount of natural oil leakage in the gulf, so it does make sense that there might already be a pre-adapted species there to consume it. In nature, if a lifeform can adapt to consume an energy source, there is probably a species that already has.

[superconnected]

33. If it has cool, however, what if they are tampering?

And since that Terry Hazen who discovered this new microbe has suggested many ways of tampering, how do YOU know nobody did?

[X_Digger]

41. We 'know' about one tenth of one percent of all 'microbes'. n/t

[woo me with science]

51. yup. nt

[woo me with science]

50. Actually, it makes perfect sense.

There is suddenly a much increased food source. Of course if such a thing were unnoticed until now, its sudden surge in population would make it more likely to be discovered.

[jpak]

75. Most of prokaryotes and picoeukaryotes in the ocean have not identified

I guess that's a BP conspiracy too.

lol

[no limit]

10. Lol

[Posteritatis]

21. Bioremediation; look it up

Oil-eating bacteria aren't exactly unknown.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. Feh.

Stupid Poe's law.

[gtar100]

38. Nonsense. There was a picture there. And it had a circle on it.

Proof that all is right in this world and BP loves you.
:freak:

[Xenotime]

52. Agreed. This is some lab-concocted organinism that is man-made..

They are just trying to get the environmentalists off their backs and it isn't working.

[Codeine]

58. Grow up.

We discover new microbes all the time. These little dude suddenly have a huge-ass food source and are presumably thriving; inevitable that we'd come across them.

Reflexive anti-science paranoia is not the sign of a healthy progressivism.

[jpak]

74. Oh gawd - why do I even bother to open these threads

Is everything a fucking conspiracy these days?

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Well, OIl is a 100% natural substance...

It is not surprising that there are microbes evolved to eat it.

[slackmaster]

5. It will be interesting to see the speed at which this organism eats oil compared to temperature

Let them eat oil.

[semillama]

6. This is super good news.

One of the really big concerns about oil-eating bacteria is that they do tend to reduce oxygen levels in the sea water, which the Gulf already has a problem with due to fertilizer runoff entering from the Mississippi.

Of course, there's another problem with a different species of oleophilic bacterium:
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/will-oil-eating-bacteria-plague-the-gulf/

" A microbe called Vibrio parahaemolyticus, common in warm coastal waters like the Gulf, thrives off of crude oil. "You can feed it exclusively oil," Jay Grimes, a marine microbiologist at the University of Southern Mississippi, said of the Vibrio species.

When ingested by humans, usually from eating raw oysters, Vibrio and related organisms can cause cramps, nausea, and can sometimes be fatal. More than 4,500 people are infected with the bacteria each year.

Though harmful to humans, these single-cell organisms aid in keeping the ocean healthy by eating naturally seeping oil. Without their presence, the world's oceans would be covered in a thick film of oil."

[xchrom]

12. Our new microbial overlords. Nt

[Kolesar]

13. "Kills the grease, with no unpleasant aftertaste!"

sounds like an oil industry public relations gimmick

[SkyDaddy7]

14. The Study was funded by BP...

I hope that does not mean it is jaded...I would hate to find out this is being hyped or worse!


Hopefully it is what they say it is...A new species of oil eating microbes that do not deplete the oxygen!

[DCBob]

20. Sciencexpress is part of Science magazine, one of the most respected science journals.

I suspect the findings are not fabricated.

[SkyDaddy7]

47. I understand that...

And I am almost positive they are true findings as well. However, regardless of which journal a paper is published in does not mean the paper is true or correct. So, you still want to see others independent of the scientist who found the microbe go out "in the field" and find the same microbe to confirm it.

It just jumps out at me that the scientist who stumbled upon the new microbe happen to be the one's funded by BP. I can't help but be cautious & skeptical like science requires!!

Time will be the ultimate truth teller on what damage has actually been done in the gulf...You won;t be able to hide dead zones from the fishermen or the scientific community as a whole.

So, I am not worried about the mix messages we are getting from everyone right now time will tell us what we need to know.

[paulkienitz]

18. good news and bad news

The good news: something's eating the oil. The bad news: we've meddled in God's domain and will soon find we've created a new horror movie monster.

[fascisthunter]

19. They aren't the only things presently eating it

hope something good comes from this.

[Robbien]

23. This is just a propaganda campaign because no one was buying their last one

that the oil just disappeared.

So BP hands Berkeley Labs a bunch of money and Berkeley Labs comes out with this story. Just like the "oil disappeared" story, every media outfit has this "the bugs ate it" story as a headliner.

The Govt/BP sits back and waits to see if we bite.

[robcon]

42. It seems you wish it were not true, Robbien.

So you state it is not true.

Cue the reference to BP, the enemy of the day.

You sound like global warming deniers, who wish away the science.

[Robbien]

45. Pro-corporate propaganda is Pro-corporate propaganda

It is no surprise to me to see that you are once again an advocate for pro-corporate propaganda.

[LTX]

46. So, according to you, the scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

are liars and frauds. Indeed, if you're correct, they are committing such an astonishingly brazen act of fraud that they have to be criminally moronic as well. After all, their findings can easily checked by any bacteriologist who cares to have a look.

Ahh, the inter-tubes. Coursing with paranoia, unfazed by facts.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[superconnected]

26. Look what Terry Hazen said May 18th - he lead the study

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/05/on_second_thought_says_scienti.php

"Terry Hazen, the esteemed microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, on how to soak up the oil: "One tactic for reducing the amount of oil in the Gulf would be to seed the affected waters with absorbent materials -- for example cellulose fibers or animal hair -- that can soak up oil." (underlining ours)"

"First, he claims that this is just an excerpt of many suggestions he made to the Times. Rather than advocating for hair, he was simply pointing out that sorbents -- absorbent materials -- of any sort could be used to gather oil. "


"Even if you do use hair -- and, if it were sterilized, human hair would work as well as animal hair -- there's another problem. First, you toss tons of hair in the water. Then, after it absorbs oil, you haul it out. Then you've got to take the resultant muck and pitch it into a a prepared bed -- "it could be in a parking lot, it could be in a cement container of some type" -- and add keratinophilic fungi, which produce enzymes that break down both the hair and the oil. "


Hmmmm - ENZYMES!

He goes on to say:

"But that's a lot of steps -- and you're left with a lot of crap to dispose of. "

[superconnected]

27. This was discovered while the gulf oil spill was happening, and it says

"— A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico"

And discovered by Terry Hazen who spoke of creating a situation for this to happen.

[superconnected]

31. Most likely they fertilized natural microbes already there - may cause issues

Terry Hazen shows up in this article (note: per his articles he's usually against using chemicals or tampering to clean up oil spills. Of course history has shown those are usually the best people the big companies buy.)

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=11463

"You take natural oil-eating microbes in the water and give them fertilizer to make them multiply and degrade the oil faster. Oil is a natural product. It's inherently biodegradable," said Terry Hazen, microbial ecologist in the Earth Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California."

"Oil-eating microbes are some of the smallest living things on Earth, but they can have a powerful impact. They occur naturally in water, and when they come into contact with oil, they eat it, producing the byproducts carbon dioxide and water. When fertilized with nitrogen and phosphorous, they grow and multiply, and their appetites become prodigious."
.
.
"It also runs some risk of damaging the very waters it is meant to rescue. Some scientists say it might be better at times to let nature take its course."
.
.
"BP says it is looking into bioremediation. "Potentially we could do it, but we would need approval from the EPA," spokesman Tristan Vanheganu said last week. "Typically it's not done until the oil has stopped flowing."
.
.
"The federal government is working on possible bioremediation efforts. The EPA has created a National Contingency Plan Product Schedule listing more than 20 biological agents approved for use in encouraging microbes to attack oil spills."
.
.

"But there is a danger. Too much fertilizer can create blooms of algae that use up all the oxygen in the surrounding water, creating "dead zones." There is a 6,000-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf off the mouth of the Mississippi River, created years ago by the same fertilizers washing down from upriver farms."

[jpak]

76. Do you know anything about the distribution of nutrients in the ocean?

Deep waters have much higher nutrient concentrations than surface waters - the highest natural concentrations of nutrients in the ocean.

There is no need for anyone to "fertilize" those subsurface oil plumes - they have all the naturally occurring nutrients they need to consume that oil.

sheesh

[Prometheus Bound]

34. I don't know. As soon as I hear the study was funded by BP I get suspicious.

Oil-Gobbling Bug Raises Gulf Hopes ... for Now

A week after a high-profile paper suggested that the vast Deepwater Horizon oil plume could linger for months, another study claims bacteria are breaking the oil down quickly, and that the plume is likely gone.

The conflict between the results are striking. Other researchers warn that there’s just too little data to draw any conclusions. But the new findings are at least encouraging.

“We saw the same plume they did,” said Terry Hazen, an ecologist and oil spill specialist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose research is funded in part by BP. “We found that very large proportions of genes from water in the plume have the ability to produce enzymes that break down the oil.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS289651119420100825

[superconnected]

35. The strange thing about Terry Hazen who did this study is he's been speaking against

environmental manipulation. Thing is I've been burned on that before a few times - where scientist were exposed as being on payrolls for large corps who previously were activists against them.

[Lagomorph]

37. Corporations do a lot of valid research.

They have a vested interest in finding solutions to the problems they create. On the cheap, of course. The only thing corporations gold plate is their executive compensation packages.

[wordpix]

49. yeah well they should do more research into solar, wind & battery storage

remember Beyond Petroleum was a BS PR campaign

[Lagomorph]

57. I agree...

I'd like to see some sci-fi "Star Wars" level breakthough in energy production and storage. Small foot print, huge power.

I could see the point of post-industrial urban centers more positively if they didn't have to suck up resources for hundreds of miles in all directions, then turn around and pollute everything within 100 miles.

[superconnected]

36. A much better article on this

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/08/24/deepwater-oil-plume-microbes/

"Hazen and his colleagues attribute the faster than expected rates of oil biodegradation at the 5 degrees Celsius temperature in part to the nature of Gulf light crude, which contains a large volatile component that is more biodegradable. The use of the COREXIT dispersant may have also accelerated biodegradation because of the small size of the oil particles and the low overall concentrations of oil in the plume. In addition, frequent episodic oil leaks from natural seeps in the Gulf seabed may have led to adaptations over long periods of time by the deep-sea microbial community that speed up hydrocarbon degradation rates."

now repeat - "Corexit is good." Oh wait, we already knew it was good at dispersing oil, it's the environment that it has a problem with. So they know new microbes are eating the oil but they may be being helped by corexit, and we know that microbes to eat oil can be grown with fertilizer that also kills the deep water environment, and we also know that there are brand new microbes flourishing to eat oil that have been discovered in this gulf incident, and that they likely came about by environmental manipulation, of, if nothing else - having the oil there in the first place (not provable because corexit is there too now, AND BP said they were using chemicals they refused to tell the gov about.) This isn't a clean environment for oil microbes to just come in (oil/water), is what I'm saying. And, all non-clean ways have shown to kill the underwater environment.

[Nihil]

40. K & R for some good news ...

... shame that the thread is currently being spammed by over-emotional
science-illiterates who seem to think that every species in the world
has already been identified so it must be an "EVUL BP SKEME!!" ...

:banghead:

[X_Digger]

43. +1 n/t

[superconnected]

54. However if us illiterates who checked into this are right

the new microbe is growing because of fertilizers and will cause giant dead zones that could last over 100 years.

The scientist(Terry Hazen) is telling us the oil eating microbe is suddenly growing fast (pay attention because this is the crux) and is doing the job of removing the oil. If this is true - which if you read the posts examining this indicate it probably is, then the microbe is most likely growing fast because they used fertilizers (known to make oil eating microbes grow very fast) and that fertilizer is known to kill the area for all sea life for decades. So this is likely the WORST news possible.

BP has admitted to using corexit as well as other chemicals they refuse to name. The author's intent - being funded by bp, is to say bp's job is over. The oil is going away by rapidly growing oil eating microbes.

He's not saying, "and they killed the ocean to cause this and save on the cost of oil clean up." His pre BP payroll articles told of how using fertilizers to grow microbes fast was far worse than leaving the oil because it can kill the place, and that nature would eventually take care of the oil naturally(slowly producing microbes) which is optimal. Monday, Hazen was pictured with the big boats and crew BP gave him - he's on their payroll now.

Per Terry Hazen in another article linked above, "There is a 6,000-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf off the mouth of the Mississippi River, created years ago by the same fertilizers washing down from upriver farms."

[X_Digger]

59. You really should study more..

.. not all microbes consume oxygen when breaking down long chain hydrocarbons. And not all produce secondary metabolites that are dangerous.

Nitrogenous fertilizers don't serve as food for all bacteria, either.

True, we don't know the full extent of what this microbe is chomping on, but neither have we seen evidence of hypoxic conditions any different than previous summers' areas.

[Codeine]

60. The microbes are reproducing quickly

because their food source has grown exponentially. That's how all populations work.

[fasttense]

48. I just don't trust this report.

It is way too convenient for getting BP off the hook.

I'll wait and see if any Non-funded-by-BP scientists come up with the same conclusions.

It could be true but most lies are sandwiched between truths.

[superconnected]

55. You shouldn't trust it - the scientist is on BP's payroll and likely giving a half truth.

Read my post #54 above.

[LTX]

67. So you distrust the scientists from the University of South Florida as well?

They were being lauded around here just recently for disagreeing with the NOAA's degradation and evaporation analysis, and with BP's estimates of remaining oil.

[superconnected]

70. Time will tell us who we can trust. My problem with Hazen is he is really on the BP payroll

now. Who knows if the rest are. Hazen looked pretty dang responsible back in April, now he's the guy smiling with his big crew and boats behind him that BP gave him and he's the one getting to tell us that the oil is gone - hence BP's clean up job is over. How nice. You trust it, I want to see what those other chemicals BP admits to pouring in the gulf but won't name, are.

[LTX]

72. It's not hard to know who has received BP grants.

They're disclosed. Just like USF's grant from BP. And your recreational slander in service of your paranoia is kind of disgusting.

[superconnected]

73. Excuse me, if you look further the guy says it's the boats and crew bp gave him

and that the study is partially funded by BP.

Do you know what the chemical's are that BP dumped into the gulf? DO TELL!!! DO TELL!!! BP said they refused to tell the EPA what they are so your inside knowlege should make all the difference and settle the suspicion that it's fertilizer!

Actually, it sounds like you don't know crap and are attacking people who are questioning. My info is from the scientist in this article who gave information in previous articles that fertilizer makes oil eating microbes grow very fast but has caused dead zones.

[Regret My New Name]

78. or it was created by BP and they don't wanna be blamed when it starts to eat us.

[alarimer]

61. This study was partially funded by BP

While the results may be perfectly valid, the headline is a tad cheerleader-ish and may not reflect the very preliminary nature of this study.

From a few paragraphs down in the press release:

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/08/24/deepwater-oil-plume-microbes/

Hazen, who has studied numerous oil-spill sites in the past, is the leader of the Ecology Department and Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division. He conducted this research under an existing grant he holds with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) to study microbial enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. EBI is a partnership led by the University of California (UC) Berkeley and including Berkeley Lab and the University of Illinois that is funded by a $500 million, 10-year grant from BP.

[ibegurpard]

62. uh huh

[LTX]

66. Are you suggesting that there is no such thing as oil eating bacteria?

Or that this is all just a big, conspiratorial lie involving thousands of scientists?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRV-4NP3P27-1&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1443368959&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=a3f0a26011ec048fda51a148a7f9d1c1

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1462-2920.2001.00185.x/abstract

http://www.springerlink.com/content/ly23dd06p6u3gu0r/

http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5wp540mj0263t4p/

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/11/4803

[superconnected]

71. And if you dig deeper - you can make fast growing oil eating bacteria by adding fertilizer

and that has been known to kill great areas of the ocean making dead zones.

Shall we all trust BP now? Their clean up job is over - oil eating microbes that are suddenly flourishing are making the oil go away - HAPPY NOW?

The only question I have is at what cost to the ocean? It's a good chance it will be dead there for decades if they used fertilizer. They're trying to get out of the clean up - they don't care about the ocean. And, we don't know what they used since they said they refuse to tell the EPA the name of all the chemicals they poured there.

[Regret My New Name]

77. oil-eating microbe?? What, like Americans?