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Newly Discovered Bacteria Could Aid Oil Cleanup

Posted by Soulskill on from the quick-somebody-come-up-with-a-stupid-name dept.

suraj.sun passes along news from Oregon State University, where researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that may be able to aid cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. The bacteria "can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive 'rhamnolipids,' and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills. Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say." In related news, Kevin Costner's centrifugal separator technology has gotten approval for deployment; now it is only waiting on funding from BP.

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    in china

  2. Newly Discovered Oil Cleanup could aid Bacteria by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The quick brown nigger jumped over the lazy dog.

    1. Re:Newly Discovered Oil Cleanup could aid Bacteria by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Nigger, 'cause members of the KKK can't spell Nigerian.

  3. This mess is just too much by erroneus · · Score: -1, Troll

    If this mess had happened in the area of the middle east or something like that and not by a company with local presence in the U.S. like BP or Exxon, the price of gasoline would spike. I have to wonder how the price of gasoline hasn't gone up significantly since the news of this story initially broke.

    So far, right now, the only people who are truly upset about this are the "environmentalist whack jobs." Somehow, the market has managed to keep the price of fuel stable during all of this. This leads me to a question that I am sure many others ask as well -- HOW is the price of oil REALLY controlled? It's not by market forces or else we would have seen a spike.

    Debeers is now allowed to operate in the U.S. because they are a price fixing monopolist. I see what looks like evidence of price fixing or some sort of conspiracy related to the price of oil in all of this and I have to wonder why there isn't at least some investigation into it. I recall several times in the past that congress was threatening to investigate pricing of oil but they never did it. I'm really sick of it all.

    1. Re:This mess is just too much by commodore64_love · · Score: 0, Troll

      I've no clue what you're talking about.

      But since you mentioned "princes" let's discuss the american version of a prince - President Obama. Why is it that NOAA and the DOE had plans to coral an oil slick and then burn-off that oil, but these plans were blocked from being being executed? Who's responsible? Obama? Cass Sunnstein? The head of NOAA or the head of DOE?

      To me this looks like a repeat of the same Katrina-like behavior where the U.S. agencies sat by and did not act. Why is our union government paralyzed when faced with an emergency?

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall