Oil eating microbes reshape droplets to optimize biodegradation

A team of French and Japanese environmental scientists has found that one kind of oil-eating microbe reshapes droplets to optimize biodegradation. In their study, reported in the journal Science, the group isolated Alcanivorax borkumensis bacteria specimens in a lab setting, fed them crude oil, and then watched how they worked together to eat the oil as quickly and efficiently as possible. Terry McGenity and Pierre Philippe Laissue with the University of Essex's School of Life Sciences have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue describing the work.