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How to settle this controversy – Before we can start cleaning up the oil spill, we have to figure out how big it is, and this has been a problem since BP Oil naturally wants it to be a small as possible, while the people actually doing the clean up need to figure out how big the job is. It turns out that the dangerous greenhouse gas methane can help us out here.

Measuring the methane in the water could give a better idea of how much oil has actually spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig pipe could be pumping as much as 100,000 barrels per day into the gulf, although many scientists think the amount may be closer to 5,000.
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Update – Science breakthrough: There’s a drug we can give to cows that, instead of being a problem for meat-eating humans, might actually be beneficial to them, because it can help prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses caused by a nasty strain of e-coli bacteria. It’s a better cure than beef slime!

Microbiologist Vanessa Sperandio says, “If we can find a way to prevent these bacteria from ever colonizing in cattle, it’s possible that we can have a real impact on human disease.” This is important because an estimated 70 to 80% of the US cattle herds carry the e-coli bacteria. Cooking kills it, but what if you like your beef rare?
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Update – The fungus affecting humans may not be a covert plot after all, it may just be science: that familiar culprit climate change. However, the fungus that is killing off the poppies in Afghanistan MAY be a secret weapon wielded by the CIA. Is this some sort of conspiracy?

The mysterious fungus may have infected about half of the Afghan poppy crop, which is the source for 92% of the world’s opium, which is made into illegal drugs and shipped to the West. BBC News reports that Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, says this could have an major impact on revenues for the Taliban, which uses opium to finance its insurgency.
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Update – According to a study of a controlled deep-water spill that was conducted in 2000, surface oil slicks may account for as little as 2% of the oil now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the oil may end up remaining in deep water, with devastating consequencesfor the ocean’s food chain.

The 2000 study challenges the estimate that around 5000 barrels of oil per day are pouring into the ocean from the site of the broken BP Deepwater rig. In June 2000, Project Deep Spill intentionally released hydrocarbons into the ocean off the coast of Norway over several 1-hour periods.
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