Vehicles may crowd the asphalt of downtown Los Angeles freeways above ground, but below ground hundreds of newly discovered bacteria thrive by munching on heavy oil and natural asphalt.

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.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070...r_bacteria.html

These guys produce Methane.

Want more of these guys http://www.livescience.com/environment/050...ball_earth.html that produce oxygen

Pretty neat!

Great, now the gov has a new excuse to raise gas prices...




Or maybe I'm confused with something else?

lol I'm sure this can be used as a reason to raise highway taxes... maybe even a "bacteria" tax for "big oil"

Hm, if the scientists can extract the enzymes from these bacteria (or even use the bacteria) oil spills would be far easier to clean up and not be so devistating to the local envirnment.

mmm... that information is the most recently, i thank you for post that, c yaaaa

bacteria would eat anything

Cue practical jokes of putting the bacteria into your mates' tanks

Does this mean they could break down plastic? It's made from petroleum. This would be very useful for getting rid of unrecyclable plastics.

You know about Methane from the reports of underground caves exploding and killing miners. Methane displaces oxygen so we are being bombarded from above, the Ozone layer is being eaten up, and below, our asphalt is dissolving. Wait, I gotta go to the store!

we actauly have been using bacteria that eats up oil for a while now when ever theres spills