Oil Zappers

This is the only write-up that I managed to get published in my school magazine.

Written about 3 years back, this is my first try on fictional grounds.

1^st January 2010, Darjeeling, 11:20 PM (IST)

It was a bright sunny morning of the very first day of 2010. The Mt. Kanchenjungha reflected the rays of the morning sun and its glorious pink colour just startled me. I was strolling down the Mall after completing my job at Kalimpong yesterday.

I am around here for some days to collect information regarding ‘Orchids of Kalimpong’ for my magazine ‘Science and Universe’. Being the chief editor and a man of astrophysics I often try to fill in the pages covering wide spectrum of science. Another reason for being here was to relax and experience the shivers (now I would rather call it obnoxious) up here in January.

Finally I reached ‘Glenaries’ for breaking my fast. After having some hotdogs and chocolates I was scanning the morning paper while my Mobile rang. The call was from the world famous Australian Marine Biodiversity and Aquatic Pollution control expert Dr. Christopher Brown. He is a great friend of mine. I knew that he currently was in India for research near Sunderbans. The call: -

-- Hi, happy New Year Suman, I’m Brown.

-- Hi, same to you. Have you finished your work at Sunderban?

-- Yeah, I’m back to Kolkata and relaxing and resting at Sonar Bangla Hotel of ITC.

-- Can’t your ‘R & R’ be done at this nice hill resort of Darjeeling?

-- Excellent idea. I know you are there. Prof. Banerjee informed me but how to reach you.

-- OK. Take the noon flight to Bagdogra and take a cab to reach Hotel Snow-flavour at Darjeeling. I’ll expect you during dinner tonight.

-- If I get a ticket I’ll certainly be there, bye.

It was 8.20 PM when I received the call from the reception. The call made me overjoyed, as I knew for sure that it was Dr. Brown.

--Good evening Sir. Some one from Australia is waiting for you at the lounge. The receptionist told.

-- Please escort the gentleman to my room.

--Your wish is our command Sir.

When Chris arrived he was just flooded with questions from me. After erasing the tired look from his face we went to the dinning hall and made order for the dinner. Chris enjoyed the food.

By 10 PM we had been to our room and engaged in discussion over an article – “Shattered by mis-planning” published in ‘Science and Universe’ about the ill effects of building Aswan Dam over river Nile.

The Aswan Multipurpose Project Dam was built on the River Nile by the government of Egypt in 1967. One of the ecological disasters i.e. 97% decreases in sardine fish catch in the up-stream within three years of construction; no gain of hydro-electricity for public usage, pollution of river, salination of the soil and its alkalinity altogether heralded a major ecological disaster within 1970. I had to stop because of Chris’s snoring.

2^nd January 2010, Yaounde, 10:00 PM (CST)

At midnight my mobile rang to wake Chris and me up. The conversation was as follows:

--Hello, is that Suman up there.

--Yes, I am.

--Hey man, I’m Stephen, Happy New Year.

--Same to you. How are you?

--Fine but here at Gabon and adjacent countries the condition is worsening. An hour ago an oil tanker Atlantis Cruiser has leaked spreading an oil slick of 200000 tonnes here on the Bight of Bonny.

--My God! Isn’t the island country of Sao Tome and Principe there?

--I didn’t expect you to know about it. The government of Sao Tome and Principe is eagerly waiting for you and Christopher Brown of Adelaide.

--I’m at Darjeeling and he is with me doing ‘R&R’.

--Really! You are at Darjeeling with Brown??

--Yeah, believe me.

--Great. Please come to Yaounde International Airport. I’ll be there.

--Well, we’ll try to be there.

--Thanks. Bye.

Professor Stephen Mbotu is a microbiologist from Angola but currently living at Libreville the capital of Gabon.

After some planning with Chris we told the Snow flavour reception for a car to Bagdogra as quickly as possible. By 6-00 in the morning we boarded the Aircraft to Kolkata and reached Delhi by 9-30 AM. Arrangements for reaching Yaounde via Johannesburg were hastily made and we reached there at 7-00 PM (Cameroon standard time). We gained about five hours as we flew towards west. It is a horrible experience to make such a long journey in such a short time.

3^rd January 2010, Sao Tome, 10:00 PM (SST)

Yesterday at 11-30 PM we started for this place from Yaounde. We reached the Hotel Sparkyzone at 2-00 AM today.

At about 4-00 AM we started for the coast. When we reached there we found the water covered with a thin film of black oil. The oil tanker was brought to the coast.

The aftermath of an oil spill of 200000 tonnes near the coastline of an island country dependent mainly on fisheries is devastating as all the trawlers had to be brought back and fishing stopped abruptly. All these things reminded me of the oil spills from 1950’s at different places. All these accidental oil leakages had heavy toll on marine lives. In 1967, Torrey Canyon dumped about 118000 tonnes of crude oil in the English Channel followed by the Amoco Cadiz oil slick of 1978 and Exxon Valdez accident in 1989. But the worst oil tanker accident was in 1979 when the two oil tankers the 'Aegean Captain and the 'Atlantic Empress' collided near Trinidad and Tobago to spread a slick of 300000 tonnes of crude oil. An immense loss of aquatic life was caused due to this accident.

During the English Channel massacre of 1967, to disperse the oil spread by the 'Torrey Canyon', two million gallons of detergents were dropped from aeroplanes. But this proved to be much more harmful. Synthetic detergents are 'branched chain' sodium salts of long chain 'sulphonates'. They have two parts, one polar (hydrophilic) head and another non polar (hydrophobic) tail. For example the commonest synthetic detergent sodium do-decyl sulphate has chemical formula of C₁₂H₂₅OSO₃ - Na⁺ and it exists as:-

Thus they are non-biodegradable and they disperse oil. They accelerate the growth of green algae which consume dissolved oxygen making the water unfit for marine life. In this way the marine life of English Channel was perished for the time being. Here also 200000 tonnes of oil had started spreading its virulent tentacles on the 'Bight of Bonny'. The formidable amount of tropical fish reserves getting eliminated every moment.

When the sun rose from amidst the Bight of Bonny and the flood lights were turned off we ordered for some ‘Pseudomonas Bacteria’ to spread it on the oil slick. This bacterium has a strange property of eating oil decomposing the hydrocarbon to form H₂O and CO_2.

They reproduce at a very fast rate by binary fission in 9.3 minutes. But the bacteria also produce a harmful toxin. Pseudomonas is also a denitrifying bacterium.

From a nearby airport we took about 28 low flying aircrafts, which are used for spraying fertilisers and insecticides over crops. The spray tanks were filled with pseudomonas bacteria and the same were sprayed over the oil slicks for over three hours. But something went wrong and the pseudomonas died. Later, we came to know that the very high temperature of water, as the place is very close to the equator and the water being covered with petroleum gained heat. The pseudomonas being unable to withstand the heat perished within an hour. The toxin secreted by the pseudomonas killed many marine organisms.

The coasts of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria and obviously Sao Tome and Principe are getting drenched with the petroleum dumped by the oil Tanker ‘Atlantis Cruiser’.

Prof. Stephen Mbotu was bewildered along with us by this miracle of the nature. It was 11.00 AM when he sent an emergency message to Dr. Frank Alcase a French genetic engineer and a very good friend of ours. Luckily he contacted us within 10 minutes and confirmed that he will join us by tonight.

It was 8.00 PM when Alcase arrived along with Stephen from the airport to our Hotel Sparkyzone. After an hour we finally sat down for discussion. We all were keen to reach to a solution of this international problem and as a result a very hot discussion followed:-

Brown: Dear friends we are here to solve a problem that has engulfed the Bight of Bonny.

Mbotu: We are encountering a holocaust and we have to find a way out but unfortunately we are not yet seen a ray of hope.

Alcase: I believe that you all have done your best to put an…

Brown: We thought that the Pseudomonas bacteria would be able to clean the oil slick without any problems.

Basu: I think I have an idea to clean the oil slick over the Bight of Bonny.

All: So, Please disclose it.

Basu: Alcase, you must be knowing about gene conjugation?

Alcase: Obviously, are you thinking of doing som…

Basu: Do we have samples of any other oil-eating bacteria like Nocardia or Acetobacter here Prof. Mbotu?

Mbotu: Yes, we have some Nocardia samples in Microbiology Research Laboratory here, but…

Basu: Alcase, the nitrogen bases of DNA - Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thiamine can be broken and reblended with each other by adding proper enzymes. Isn’t it so! According to my knowledge the conjugation of purines & pyramidines of the two different species of bacteria will help in the interchanging of genetic material between them. Helicase can be used for unwinding the double strand of DNA. Then with one free strand of a bacterium another strand of another species of bacteria can be merged. To stop self synthesis of complementary strand by the single strand another enzyme has to be added. In this way the genes of both the bacterium would be present in the new Genetically Modified Bacteria (GMB). I believe that the new GMB will be effective and can be used for cleaning the oil slick.

Brown: Is that so easy?

Alcase: No, but the idea is undoubtedly incredible.

Mbotu: Marvellous! Alcase please start your work then, synthesise the GMB from Nocardia & Pseudomonas bacteria by gene conjugation. We are always with you.

Alcase: O.K. But first I would need the sample of the bacteria.

The discussion has ended half an hour ago and Dr.Alcase along with the other scientists have finally decided to synthesize the GMB. I’m feeling sleepy now.

4^th January 2010, Sao Tome, 8:00PM (SST)

After working overnight and all daylong with some other genetic engineers, Alcase finally was able to synthesize the GMB at around 6.00PM. Today, we carried out many experiments with the newly synthesized micro-organism, rather the Genetically Modified Bacteria. It:-

· Reproduced somewhat faster than the Pseudomonas.

· Decomposed petroleum much faster.

· Didn't produce any harmful toxins.

· Was able to withstand temperature up to 105^oC like 'Pyrodictium brockii, which resides in sulphur rich habitats.

Finally, the climax arrived at 7.30PM. We started with 39 low flying helicopters with the GMB in the spray-tanks and we are going on with the work of spraying the GMB over the oil slick. Let's see what happens and obviously hope for the best.

8^th January 2010, Kolkata, 9:30PM (IST)

I have returned here today at 5.25 PM from London by IC - 856. I reached home two hours ago. We all flew back to our respective countries via Heathrow after completing some formal jobs with the governments of Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and attending several press conferences.

After spreading GMB over the oil slick, the oil vanished in an hour. The Bight of Bonny got rid of the man made curse. Thanks a lot to the GMB, which spared its life, and solved an international problem. All the bacteria were found dead after the oil got cleared. This was due to the toxin from the Pseudomonas that was floating on water. It is a case of mother killing her child.

We got a nice felicitation and the Presidents honoured us for saving their countries. We all became rich by an amount $ 50,000.

I expect that the marine life of Bight of Bonny will soon be restored as EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING.