Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster

Marine bacteria could be the key to cleaning oil spills in the sea, according to microbiologists at Bangor University.

Dr Gertler's colleague Professor Peter Golyshin added: "The microbe used in the experiments, alcanivorax borkumensis, is extremely well adapted to oil degradation.

"It lives solely on oil and dies after consuming all oil in its surrounding.

"Experiments in the lab have shown that, given good growth conditions, the bacteria initiate oil degradation very quickly within a week after the oil spill and finish it within two months."
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"The next step would be to test the method in the field on an actual oil spill as soon as possible," said Dr Gertler.

"The potential for bioremediation, as this technique is called, is huge.

"It is, I believe, the only technique that would effectively remove oil that is distributed over such large distances as are being seen in the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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story/video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/wales/north_west_wales/10178022.stm
 
That would be cool. Just need to make sure the bacteria don't go totally out of control. Also, often bacteria don't work quite as well in the real world as they do in lab tests. Hopefully something will work...

I'm still irked that they didn't have any really good, tested plans in place for this before they drilled the wells. Usually you're supposed to have safety plans for the "worst-case" scenario. Bad engineering.
 
Right, you don't want to introduce a new species that would become invasive or destructive, but it sounds like this bacteria will die when the oil is gone as there just won't be anything for it to eat. And this bacteria already lives in The Gulf, but not in any significant numbers.

But yeah, it's sort of a dream ticket... something about something sounding too good to be true.


The President has halted any new drilling and permits for 6 months and there will be thorough inspections and new safety measures from now on.
 
My home has been destroyed as I make way to leave it...

I might be one of the only members of this forum to live near the Gulf coast. Hell, I just took a run last Friday down to good old Wakulla beach. The currents haven't carried the oil near Florida yet, and the west Florida people are actually pretty pissed the state government isn't advertising that fact, as the state relies pretty extremely on tourist revenue. It's one of the only major sources of income for the government here, actually. No income tax, it's why all the old people with money move here.

Anyways, even if the oil doesn't completely destroy the beaches and marshlands that stretch across the Gulf, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, life as I know it down here will be inevitably changed due to this oil spill. Most of the local towns down here rely completely on the seafood economy to support themselves. These fisherman had some of the hardest jobs in the world BEFORE the spill. Fishing day in and day out, scraping by at a living that you can't really get ahead in in conditions most of you would consider pretty damn shitty if you had to do it like they did. And now all of the fish, all of the oysters, all of the crabs, all of the shrimp, scallops, everything, are going to die. The price of fish might skyrocket for you all, but the lives of millions down here will be irrevocably changed. These people have been living this life for generations. They don't know anything else. They don't want anything else. The problem will not go away soon either. How do you get millions upon millions of gallons of oil out of a god damn ocean. Short answer, you don't. It's going to be there for decades if not longer, and no matter what they might say on the news, these people will be abandoned. You can't put them all on welfare.

BP, liable for paying to clean up the coast? Maybe.

But they can't pay the cost to get the people out of the hell that's coming down the current.
 
This is going to be like a trillion dollar mistake....easy. I just hope that our lazy gov't gets off its ass and help everyone out. This can be compared to Katrina, and time and time again will show, not enough action is taking place. we could be sending plenty of unemployed people down there to get paid to help clean up and it would help solve many problems right now.
 
dfc05 said:
That would be cool. Just need to make sure the bacteria don't go totally out of control. Also, often bacteria don't work quite as well in the real world as they do in lab tests. Hopefully something will work...
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Well these are bacteria which were originally identified because they did do better in oil-polluted water, and are present in small amounts naturally. Basically they'd just be massively jump-starting the inevitable process of the Alcanivorax borkumensis bacteria already present in the waters multiplying and spreading in response to the leak.
 
Try installing an emergency shut off when you make these things, tards.
 
Eejit said:
Well these are bacteria which were originally identified because they did do better in oil-polluted water, and are present in small amounts naturally. Basically they'd just be massively jump-starting the inevitable process of the Alcanivorax borkumensis bacteria already present in the waters multiplying and spreading in response to the leak.
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Sounds good and a lot more promising than I'd thought earlier. I should've actually read the whole article before posting :).
 
Oil is for ******s.

I'm guessing this oil spill will last for a long time, until they actually find a decent way to stop it.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
Try installing an emergency shut off when you make these things, tards.
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They did but they couldn't locate or shut-off the well that way. This entire time they have been trying to use that rover to do all the work.

Personally cutting off a damaged head and putting on a cap is a REALLY bad idea. The rover success rate this far has been bad and your hoping it can place a cap over it. :sleep: So instead of the oil that's coming out now, we are gonna have a solid flow of oil coming out. *Yeah I'm not the only one saying this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37422583/ns/gulf_oil_spill/ Doesn't take a team of scientists to figure this out neither. If they think the pressure coming out is bad now, wait till you see that well gushing when the pipe is cut.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
Try installing an emergency shut off when you make these things, tards.
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They had one, but forgot to put a battery in it.

Yes. That is the reason why this happened. They didn't put a battery in the blow-out preventer.

Southern Louisiana is such a stupid place to live. They're actually hoping for a hurricane now, since a hurricane tearing through there will now do more good than harm by dispersing the oil. I really dont see why anyone would choose to live there. I mean, yeah, New Orleans is a cool place to visit, but come on, I think its time to let that ****ing place just sink into the ocean already. Nature (and apparently BP) are just going to keep ****ing around with that city and coast until everyone leaves for good.
 
why can't they put a really large pipe connected to a massive funnel with weights and then feed it up that way??
 
Warped said:
why can't they put a really large pipe connected to a massive funnel with weights and then feed it up that way??
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I thought that was exactly what the first two attempts were? (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
 
hool10 said:
They did but they couldn't locate or shut-off the well that way. This entire time they have been trying to use that rover to do all the work.

Personally cutting off a damaged head and putting on a cap is a REALLY bad idea. The rover success rate this far has been bad and your hoping it can place a cap over it. :sleep: So instead of the oil that's coming out now, we are gonna have a solid flow of oil coming out. *Yeah I'm not the only one saying this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37422583/ns/gulf_oil_spill/ Doesn't take a team of scientists to figure this out neither. If they think the pressure coming out is bad now, wait till you see that well gushing when the pipe is cut.
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Try installing an emergency shut off THAT WORKS when you make these things, tards.
 
dfc05 said:
I thought that was exactly what the first two attempts were? (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
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it was, but the pipes froze up or got clogged up really quick. what they need is a much larger opening or maybe something with larger pipes

edit: http://www.cnn.com

they have a live link that says they're capping it but i'm only crossing fingers
 
huge tragedies have changed the trajectory of the energy business before, such as the partial core meltdown in a unit at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979.

"That disaster literally put a stop to nuclear power in the U.S.," Rodman said at the summit. "I'm not sure Three Mile Island was as big as what has happened (in the Gulf)."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q4LS20100527

This is the only good that could come from this. Start building those Wind Turbines and other Earth & element powered generators now, k thx.
 
Looking forward to solar powered, wind turbine and wave powered space travel.
 
Baserape> said:
Looking forward to solar powered, wind turbine and wave powered space travel.
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What about the lights and electricity in the homes of billions of people, think it can handle that at least?
Space shuttle fuel consumed in a launch: 3.5 million pounds
Gasoline consumed in one day in the US - 2,500 million pounds
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So, just two minutes of gasoline consumption in the US, compared to putting humans into space.

The Voyager space probes that have been in service since 1977 are still capable of some of their functionality, 33 years later. They run on plutonium, a man made element.

Humans have no plans to ever stop using electricity. With the population of Earth expected to increase indefinitely (unless we have another Extinction Event), then we are going to have to get real with regards to energy consumption. There is power for the taking. Wind, Solar, Water, Geothermal energies are [for all effective purposes] completely pollution free.

Solar radiation maximum and minimum (W/m²)
Mercury 0.3075 – 0.4667 14,446 – 6,272
Venus 0.7184 – 0.7282 2,647 – 2,576
Earth 0.9833 – 1.017 1,413 – 1,321 (also the only planet to have liquid water power available)
Mars 1.382 – 1.666 715 – 492
Jupiter 4.950 – 5.458 55.8 – 45.9
Saturn 9.048 – 10.12 16.7 – 13.4
Uranus 18.38 – 20.08 4.04 – 3.39
Neptune 29.77 – 30.44 1.54 – 1.47
 
mods tell me to bring this in here because the luddites in Politics can't understand it.

Once upon a time, a man worked hard and supported a large family. He was a real powerhorse, raking in the $$$! But there was a problem--his extraordinary energy was boosted by meth, bought from dealers who were thugs--some who hated him. So the man decided he had to build his own meth lab, in his own bathtub.

One day the lab blew up, killing some of his children, and fouling up his house with a horrific, unlivable stench. Many tears were shed, and he and his dear ones resolved that they must do something about the problem that had wrecked so many lives. Everyone knew what really had to be done, though it would be hard.

And yet, even then--voices in the man's head once again insisted that, because his dealers were thugs (some of whom hated him), his first priority must be to continue to produce meth in his own bathtub. Otherwise, how else could he continue to be the big breadwinner that he had been?

So the man made up his mind, and posted a sign on his bathroom wall: TWEAK BABY TWEAK.
 
it's sort of an obscure passage...i somewhat got it with the "tweak baby tweak" but that's as far as i got

and i am no luddite, take it back
 
The effect is much better if you take the story up front and form opinions about it in direct terms before making the association to current events and whatever opinions and baggage you bring on that issue. Analogy is the oldest trick in the book.
 
PORT FOURCHON, La. - As the crude crept closer to Florida, the effort to contain the nation's worst oil spill hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-edged saw became stuck in a thick pipe on a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf.
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:LOL: Oh brother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkDMzW_O-D4

I want that as the next TF2 engineer unlock. I have really bad feelings this capping won't work neither.
 
They actually added a "suggestion box" like I proposed here and at a couple of other sites when the disaster first struck.
More than 20,000 ideas on how to stop the flow of oil or contain the oil spill have been sent to BP since the Gulf of Mexico incident. These ideas have flooded in from people across the world, ranging from ordinary members of the public to oil industry professionals, and in many languages from Arabic to Russian.
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After the caller completes and submits the form, it is sent for triage by a team of 30 technical and operational personnel who will review its technical feasibility and application. Given the quantity of the proposals and the detail in which the team investigates each idea, the technical review can take some time. Each idea is sorted into one of three categories:

* Not possible or not feasible in these conditions;
* Already considered/ planned or;
* Feasible.

The feasible ideas are then escalated for a more detailed review, potential testing and field application. So far, around 100 ideas are under further review.
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I do hope one of the ideas under review will work.

The page: http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/546759/
The suggestion form: http://www.horizonedocs.com/artform.php
 
I hope soon humanity finds a better, and also efficient source for fuel, rather than this disgusting, thick, black substance. And I hope the world doesn't fall under the rule of the companies that control the fuel... Maybe have several fuel types? Limit each company to one that way they can't control the market...

Then again, I'm just babbling.
 
888884039_umVwa-L.jpg
 
Van_Halen said:
I hope soon humanity finds a better, and also efficient source for fuel, rather than this disgusting, thick, black substance. And I hope the world doesn't fall under the rule of the companies that control the fuel... Maybe have several fuel types? Limit each company to one that way they can't control the market...

Then again, I'm just babbling.
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There has been, cheaper, more efficient alternatives available since the 1950's. Oil companies keep these discoveries silent. The only way humanity will progress is when oil reserves are completely depleted. Those will be the days when we'll be forced to use alternatives.

Warped said:
I can't help but feel responsible for this oil spill. just looking around right now and seeing how much plastic and oil based products there are is mind boggling.
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Chances are you probably even wear something petroleum based. Nylon, polyester, etc are all a by-products of oil. Thanks to advancements in nanotechnology, someday we'll get the same water-resistant benefits of synthetic textiles in natural materials like cotton. For now though, try getting an athlete to wear wool jerseys like back in the old days that are itchy and absorb too much moisture.


It's not fair to demonize oil completely though. Just boycott BP for their incompetence and buy from a different manufacture. Or wear clothing that's made from natural materials.
 
I swear that the "cap" that is in place now has a pretty big leak or a really cruddy seal. I mean now it's just REALLY gushing out.
 
oh man, I'd love to have one of those machines

also:

129198884038926871.jpg
 
What they don't realize about washing the animal life is that they are screwed anyways. Mammals have pores which can let toxins such as oil, to go into your bloodstream.
 
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