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Guest Thinkers

Gulf Oil Spill Solution?

"A study released Tuesday suggests that a new species of microbe is consuming the undersea plumes in the Gulf oil spill—perhaps more quickly than scientists anticipated."

“Microbes found in an undersea cloud of oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout may have the potential to degrade oil faster than previously thought, according to a new study published Tuesday. The results are among the first in what is expected to become a deluge of studies on the Gulf oil spill. By offering data on how fast microbes consume oil, the results could be useful in helping scientists to determine what happened to the oil and how the oil could affect marine life. In addition, the results also suggest that most of the microbes in the cloud are a new species that do not significantly deplete oxygen in the water as they consume the oil.”


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