Microbes can date when a solvent was spilled by how far they metabolized it
Evidence
Under direct examination by Facher, Braids told the court that he had been able to determine by scientific tests the earliest possible moment at which TCE could have been dumped on the Beatrice land. He had done this by examining the microorganisms in the soil—“It might be easier just to call them soil bugs,” Braids said. Some of these soil bugs had a taste for chlorine atoms. They attached themselves to molecules of TCE and broke the TCE down to dichloroethylene, and then to vinyl chloride, a compound so stable that the bugs no longer had any use for it. This process of “biodegradation,” said Braids, could take from three to six years, but no longer than six years. Of that, Braids was absolutely certain. … The import of this was obvious. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2098
Categorization
- DEFINE: Explains biodegradation as a metabolic chain — TCE to dichloroethylene to vinyl chloride — in which the final compound resists further microbial attack.
- QUESTION: If ‘soil bugs’ really degrade TCE in a bounded window, the method should be standard; is this genuine science or a courtroom artifact dressed in lab clothes?
- XREF: connects to: Whether an event is a disturbance depends on the receiving organism — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1030
Broader Connections
- Whether an event is a disturbance depends on the receiving organism
#complicates(0.95) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1030