Oil spills could be cleaned up by giving local microbes extra genes

By Michael Le Page

Alexander Schwarz / EyeEm/Getty Photos

We would possibly possibly possibly possibly also give bacteria a helping hand to sort out oil spills on land and at sea by equipping them with enzymes for breaking down hydrocarbons, in step with novel analysis. This would possibly possibly possibly possibly also be more cost effective and more eco-friendly than other orderly-up strategies.

“In the intervening time, there in actual fact are no exact systems to orderly up oil spills,” says Katherine French at the University of California, Berkeley. Identical old strategies comprise dumping the contaminated soil in other areas or spraying chemicals that can themselves be negative.

Some microbes naturally have enzymes that can …