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New metal-eating bacteria found on Titanic
Bacteria scooped from the wreckage of the Titanic almost 20 years ago have been confirmed as a new species in the December issue of a microbiology journal.
While new scientific discoveries are usually heralded as joyous news, this discovery is bittersweet.
The bacteria, found on the ship's "rusticles" (rust formations that look like icicles), are eating the Titanic.
The strain, dubbed Halomonas titanicae, was initially designated BH1T in honor of the researchers who discovered it, then-graduate student Bhavleen Kaur and Dr. Henrietta Mann at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
The researchers tested the bacteria to see whether it was "good bacteria" or "bad bacteria," according to the school's website.
Let's just say the bug has an appetite for destruction.
"The BH1 cells stuck to the surface of these [small metal tags] and eventually destroyed the metal. So we knew we had a bad bacteria,” Mann is quoted as saying on the Dalhousie University website.
"In 1995, I was predicting that Titanic had another 30 years," said Mann, who still works at the university, according to CBS News. "But I think it's deteriorating much faster than that now ... Eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain," she is quoted as saying.
The metal-eating bug presents a dilemma for scientists.
"Letting it proceed with its deterioration is also a learning process," said Kaur, who now works with the Ontario Science Centre, according to National Geographic. "If we stop and preserve it, then we stop the process of degradation," Kaur is quoted as saying.
The findings were published in the December 8 issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
The Titanic, heralded in its day as the largest passenger ship in the world, sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. The wreckage was found in 1985 by an expedition team more than 2 miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
We would all do a lot better to place less importance on the memorializing of physical place and residue. Isn't this what "Hoarders" is trying to teach us?
No matter how hard mankind tries, nothing will last forever Rome, Greece and ancient Mesopotamia all fell and very little remains of these places. The earth will always take back what it has given up.
Good or bad bacteria relative to what? What is good or bad bacteria for us might not be the same for the earth or for inanimate objects.
Ahhhh who the eff cares and why do we know this? With all the crap going on in the world some brilliant mind and money is being wasted on this? LOL. Okidoki
Not finding a way to cram more creamy filling into Sevenhabit's Twinkies=Waste of Time. God help us.
Chuck Norris can make them stop !
Good to hear that scientists are spending someones hard earned money to find out that ships that sink at sea rust.
Rust isn't new. The discovery of a previously unknown bacteria is. And yes, I happen to think any scientific discovery is interesting.
Eventually this bacteria will realize how foul rust tastes, and move on to french fries.
Bacteria are neither good nor bad. They just do what they do.
how they when down to the ship and find at bacteria, why they can bring ship up to the surface.
Say again. In English, please.
"Rusticles" sounds like a robot disease of the reproductive area.
These bacteria should be used in a controlled environment to get rid of all the waste produced by us so that we have less landfills.
okay i knew i wasn't the only one
How is this important again?
You remind me of a joke we have in Spanish:
– "Do you known the joke about the Ocean?"
– "No"
– "is is too deep for you"
Go back to watch the news about Justin, or Paris or Lindsay...
That was just horrible........ You assume too much
Can we deport the teabaggers to those intenational waters? They could report back to us how the ship -and themselves- are slowly by surely going into oblivion. I will miss the ship, though.
am i the only person who sees this as possibly being a good thing? using a metal-eating bacteria in a controlled environment could work to make dent in the huge metal scrap yards that litter our planet. the report doesnt mention any effects, so i'm assuming there aren't any biproducts like sulfur or carbon which could affect our atmosphere.
@David. You are a chump.