On May 5, 9:11*pm, Frank Reid © 2010 wrote:
On May 5, 8:16*pm, Giles wrote:





On May 5, 11:55*am, Larry L wrote:

I saw on the News Hour last night that there are many natural oil
seeps on the floor of the Gulf

Never heard that before.....but it comes as no surprise. *There are
many natural oil seeps in many places in the world and have been since
the dawn of history. *Don't recall specifics, but it seems to me I've
encountered scholarship quoting references to such from just about
every ancient culture that had an ancient recorded history.*

and bacteria and tiny plants that have
evolved to feed on that oil. *Again, I had no clue.

Ditto. *Oh, I knew that some tiny critters had been ENGINEERED to feed
on that oil.....but this is the first I've heard of any that evolved
to do so naturally. *But it comes as no surprise. *Hey, after learning
that there are numerous species living on and about volcanic stacks
thousands of feet below sea level at enormous pressures in
environments exceeding 600 degrees (and, really, at anything much
above the boiling point of water {at STP} the difference between C.
and F. is kinda moot, ainna?) what's left that can have much shock
value, ainna?

And, again, I wish that it wasn't such a disaster fueling my
increasing knowledge of things oily

Well, wish away.....but having one's interest piqued by disaster is
better than not, no?

giles
* yeah, i know.....it's redundant. *but most people don't know that
and......well, it gets complicated. *best to stick to the formula
unless someone asks.....or objects. *the latter is much more
fun.....which is a good thing because the former rarely happens.

Actually, they've found that if you use a phosphate detergent on the
spill area, the bacteria that eat oil bloom. *There was a test area on
the shore at the exon valdez site. *One area was steam cleaned, one
was left alone, and the third had detergent. *The detergent area ended
up the cleanest, the steam cleaned area was the worst (steam cleaning
killed off the bacteria).
Frank Reid

Well, if bacteria of some sort (whether naturally evolved or
bioengineered) ingest petroleum or its constituent components at or
near the surface of the world's oceans and leave less noxious
metabolites in their wake, and if they are subjected to a steam bath,
and if they fail to perform as expected afterward, it is hardly
surprising. If they thrive in a phosphate rich environment, this is
also not very surprising in lieu of other information.......many
bacteria do well in phosphate rich environments. Then too, detergents
are well known to react strongly with petro-chemicals. All of which
tells us very little of use.

The question of interest, at least from my point of view, is whether
the bacteria involved are naturally evolved or the product of some mad
scientists' laboratory experiments. In either case, experience
suggests that they've got a long way to go before they are a reliable
fix (or even a remedial paliative worthy of consideration) for this
kind of recurrent cluster****.

giles
who, to be perfectly honest, really isn't much interested in who
"they" are.