The news media can't resist a great story. That tenant was confirmed this weekend when fascinating results of a UC Riverside research project were shared with the media and then published widely.
UC Riverside environmental microbiologist David Crowley and postdoctoral researcher Jong-Shik Kim discovered bacteria in the La Brea tar pits that are uniquely adapted to the harsh environment and contain three previously undiscovered classes of enzymes that can naturally break down petroleum products, according to a news release by Iqbal Pittalwala of UC Riverside news service.
"We found some really great bacteria," the Los Angeles Times quoted Crowley. "The types we found are all very specialized for life in extreme environments."
Crowley also told Times reporter Jia-Rui Chong that the the petroleum-eating bacteria are interesting for their potential environmental applications -- for cleaning up oil spills or cleaning holds of oil tankers and degrading ticholoroethylene, a dry-cleaning and metal degreasing solvent that is a groundwater contaminant.
"These are definitely keepers," he said.
The story was picked up by a number of news media, including Fox News and Innovations Report in Germany.