Micro Essay

1) What are the difficulties in promoting microbial degradation of oil?
Promoting microbial degradation of oil is very prospective but it has a number of difficulties, which make it quite difficult to promote successfully the concept of microbial degradation. First of all, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that promoting microbial degradation raises the problem of the adequate and accurate assessment of the impact of microbial degradation on the environment and animals. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the case of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, where the use of dispersant to accelerate the growth of microbes could have had a negative impact on the environment and animals (Blello, 5). In addition, the promotion of microbial degradation of oil should be grounded on the accurate assessment of the amount of the oil spill and the quantity of oil microbes have to “consume”. However, it is not always possible to define accurately the amount of oil (Blello, 7). Therefore, the promotion of microbial degradation of oil may be quite difficult because of the inaccuracy of the assessment concerning an oil spill. At the same time, consequences of the promotion of microbial degradation of oil are still unclear because microbes consume O2 and emit greenhouse gas CO2 (Blello, 6). In such a context, it is still unclear whether the promotion of microbial degradation of oil will have a positive impact on the environment or probably this will be another natural disaster caused by human activities.
2) Do you think development of a ‘superbug’ that could degrade oil would be the best solution?
The development of a ‘superbug’ that could degrade oil could hardly be the best solution because the process of oil degradation should be thoroughly controlled. In case of the ‘superbug’ the process of oil degradation can go out of control. In fact, the risk of the processing of oil degradation going out of control may be even more dangerous than oil spill itself. In such a situation, scientists may have considerable problems with controlling the superbug and managing it properly. If something goes wrong, scientist may be unable to cope with or to stop the superbug, while its impact on the environment may be disastrous (Jaini, 194). Therefore, the development of the superbug is a project that may be extremely dangerous and it resembles the development of a ‘superbomb’ as the tool of the prevention of a military conflict in global terms.
3) Of the experiments that you performed in lab a few days ago, which one (with only slight modifications) would be most useful in investigating microbial degradation of oil in the gulf? What question would you ask first? Why? (Multiple answers possible)
The most useful experiment will be the one that involves the interaction between microbes and the oxygen as well as with other elements, which may be found in the natural environment of the gulf. In fact, this experiment may help to foresee possible effects of using microbes to promote the oil degradation in the gulf region with the help of microbes. At the same time, this experiment may help to understand how the process of using microbes may be controlled or changed using natural elements of the environment, in which microbes will actually work to degrade oil.