Bacteria Found To Eat Petroleum and Concrete

Trapped in the Rancho La Brea tar pits 28,000 years ago, the bacteria are equipped with special enzymes that can break down petroleum, environmental scientists at the University of California, Riverside report in a recent issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The petroleum-dismantling enzymes could be used to clean up oil spills, create new medicines and manufacture bio-fuels, among other uses.

Bacteria that survive on petroleum produce methane gas as waste, so when Kim and his colleague Dave Crowley noticed the gas bubbling out of the oily soil, they know they had found something unique.


SOURCE:
LiveScience.com

Now this is definitely an interesting bacteria, definitely more something I'd expect to be a creation
of some bio-genetics lab decades from now, rather than a natural species thousands of years old.

I wonder if the military will look into this, just imagine a bio-weapon that, once released starts
eating the concrete infrastructure, this would be, in my opinion one of the best weapons ever created, when it comes to preventing casualties.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 5/10/2007 by iori_komei]

I completly aggree.

But it would also be the most devastating terroist weapon ever conceved.

Wow! Should this bacteria be called the "Ultimate Anti-Suburbia virus"???

ANyways this could save our environment from invasive and unhealthy things such as endless asphalt and concrete deserts...

Originally posted by Echtelion
Wow! Should this bacteria be called the "Ultimate Anti-Suburbia virus"???

Hmmm. would also make a pretty good cleaning method for the floor of my garage. (Bunch of oil spill marks, and misc. other petroleum based fluid residues)

Petroleum-eating bacteria have been known for a long time...I'm not sure why they're treating this as completely new.

Plus they're not eating concrete, they're eating asphalt which is made from crude oil.

[edit on 5/10/2007 by djohnsto77]