A new technique using bacteria that lights up so it is easy to spot could help better detect pollution from oil spills and other environmental leakage, researchers in Switzerland said on Thursday, Reuters reported The colour-coded bacteria are cheap and can alert scientists to low level leaks from underground pipes, storage pipes and other substances that spill into the soil or sea, said Jan Van der Meer of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "The heart of our colour sensor system is the bacteria themselves," he said in a statement. "They reproduce themselves ... which makes the whole set up really cheap." Van der Meer, who presented his research at a meeting of the Society of General Microbiology in Dublin, Ireland, said scientists have successfully tested the bacteria to measure a variety of harmful pollutants using a simple light recording device. The main problem with detecting oil spills and other toxic substances is that many of the most dangerous chemicals do not dissolve in water, which makes them difficult to detect, he said. Instead, these pollutants tend to stick to rock, seabirds and shellfish where they can remain for many years. Unlike current methods, the new technique does not require chemicals to determine the source of leaks and is friendlier for the environment, he said. "Because bacteria have simple single-celled bodies it is relatively easy to equip them with a sensor and a brightly coloured 'reporter protein' which shows up under a microscope, alerting us to different substances leaking into the soil or seawater from oil spills," Van der Meer said.
