Microbe cleaned up spilt oil, scientists say, Sydney Morning Herald, August 26, 2010: The bacteria not only speeds up the bio-degradation of crude oil, but does it without depleting vital oxygen levels in the water, the scientists said. … The result was a nature-made clean-up crew capable of reducing the amount of oil in the undersea ”plume” by half about every three days, according to the research. … The findings, by a team of scientists led by Terry Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, help explain one of the mysteries of the disaster: where has the oil gone?… ”We’ve gone out to the sites and we don’t find any oil but we do find the bacteria.” Here’s what the SMH neglected to tell it’s readers didn’t tell you about the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: New microbe discovered eating oil spill in Gulf, Associated Press, August 25, 2010: The research was supported by an existing grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, a partnership led by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois that is funded by a $500 million, 10-year grant from BP. Other support came from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Oklahoma Research Foundation. Study: Microbes Eating Up Oil in Gulf of Mexico, Democracy Now, August 25, 2010: The findings contradict several recent studies showing much of the oil remains in the Gulf and continues to threaten its ecosystem. … The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has extensive ties to both BP and the US government. In 2007, the lab received the bulk of a controversial $500 million science grant from BP. The Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s director at the time, Steven Chu, now heads the Department of Energy, which also partially funds the lab. ~~~ More in depth: Microbe chemist says BS to microbe study http://bit.ly/cQWLQ4 “Hazen’s interpretation has its skeptics. “Most of the science associated with this spill has been oversimplified,” says John Kessler, a chemical oceanographer at Texas A&M University in College Station. In a good-faith effort to make sense of what’s going on, many researchers look to offer interpretations based on too few data, he charges. For instance, he says, “what Hazen was measuring was a component of the entire hydrocarbon matrix,” which is a complex mix of literally thousands of different molecules. Although the few molecules described in the new paper in Science may well have degraded within weeks, Kessler says, “there are others that have much longer half-lives — on the order of years, sometimes even decades.” Moreover, he points out, many of the tools traditionally used to gauge biodegradation don’t work well in the field. A few teams have lately begun transitioning to use of more sensitive probes, he says. And data from those more sensitive tools are fueling his skepticism of Hazen’s report that microbes have been erasing deep-sea plumes. As recently as August 22, Kessler says, “I spoke to some of those researchers out there [in the Gulf], and they told me they were still seeing plumes.” added by: samantha420
