Word: gutnick
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With Biochemist David Gutnick, Rosenberg isolated a genus of bacteria called arthrobacter, which feast on crude oil, and then developed a particularly fast-multiplying new strain, which they named "RAG-1."* Bred in salt water enriched with phosphorus and nitrogen compounds, the strain gobbles up the paraffin (waxy) content of crude oil, leaving only small droplets of dewaxed oil that break down quickly in nature and become harmless carbon dioxide and water...
...Slick. Going to the source of the problem, Rosenberg and Gutnick last winter boarded a 125,000-ton tanker to give RAG1 a practical test. Selecting two of the ship's tanks, which were each filled with 100 tons of sea water, they poured 55 lbs. of nitrogen-containing urea and 2.2 lbs. of potassium phosphates into each. Shipboard compressors were used to bubble air into the tanks through a perforated hose, thus turning them into ideal "bacterial fermenters," says Rosenberg. Then a flaskful of RAG1 bacteria was poured into one tank. Six and a half days later...
Best of all, RAG1 cannot harm other life in the ocean. "We took the bacteria from nature," says Gutnick. "They are there and they are fastidious about what they like and do not like." When the bacteria run out of oil, they conveniently die and are themselves eaten by fish...
Rosenberg, Avraham Reisfield and Gutnick...
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