Much to his chagrin, my parents let me read all of my brother’s books and play with his Lego, microscope, and chemistry set.

from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

* WWLTV.com | BP says tube taking out one-fifth of oil leaking from well blowout

BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Monday … that a mile-long tube was funneling a little more than 1,000 barrels — 42,000 gallons — of crude a day from a blown well into a tanker ship. The company and the U.S. Coast Guard have estimated about 5,000 barrels — 210,000 gallons — have been spewing out each day.

Let’s say the tube is evacuating more like one-tenth of the oil. Allowing scientists access to the gusher at the sea floor to measure it “is not relevant to the response effort,” according to BP, so I guess it doesn’t matter if one-fifth, one-tenth or one-twentieth is being taken out, right?

Getting the relief tube in right the first time a problem is not a mistake, but an opportunity in “learning, reconfiguring, doing it again.”

* Scientific American | How Long Will the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Last?

“If the [oil] mousse gets into the marshes, it can last a real long time … Once there’s no oxygen, it doesn’t break down fast at all; it’s a long-term toxic reservoir.”

The toxic compounds in oil vary, but largely fall in the group known to chemists as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as napthalenes, benzene, toluene and xylenes. All are known human carcinogens with other health effects for humans, animals and plants. “These hydrocarbons are particularly relevant if inhaled or ingested,” says environmental toxicologist Ronald Kendall of Texas Tech University. “In the bodies of organisms such as mammals or birds, these aromatic hydrocarbons can be transformed into even more toxic products, which can affect DNA.” In other words, the effects of the oil spill will linger in the genetics of Gulf coast animals long after the spill is gone, resulting in mutations that could lead to problems ranging from reduced fertility to cancer.

* More on the science of chemical dispersants: “while we may worry about BP’s dishwashing venture in the Gulf, the bigger experiment is our own.”

* NPR | Gulf Spill May Far Exceed Official Estimates

Bottom line: Flow rate from the major riser leak is at least 4 times larger than the Conventional 5000-Barrel-Per-Day Wisdom.

* SCPR | Investigators Find Slew Of Problems At Oil Rig

I’d like to know who is helping the House investigative subcommittee understand all the oil industry lingo and methodology.

* New York Times | U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permits

As I said to a commenter regarding yesterday’s post, pro-regulation doesn’t necessarily mean pro-new-regulation. It implies getting governing bodies to do their jobs, i.e. forcing them to force the industry to follow existing regulations.

* National Geographic | Gulf Oil Leaks Could Gush for Years

…  such recovery operations have never been done before in the extreme deep-sea environment around the wellhead, noted Matthew Simmons, retired chair of the energy-industry investment banking firm Simmons & Company International.

For instance, at the depth of the gushing wellhead “5,000 feet (about 1,500 meters)” containment technologies have to withstand pressures of up to 40,000 pounds per square inch (about 28,100 kilograms per square meter), he said.

Also, slant drilling – a technique used to relieve pressure near the leak – is difficult at these depths, because the relief well has to tap into the original pipe, a tiny target at about 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide, Simmons noted.

“We don’t have any idea how to stop this,” Simmons said of the Gulf leak. Some of the proposed strategies – such as temporarily plugging the leaking pipe with a jet of golf balls and other material – are a “joke,” he added.

“We really are in unprecedented waters.”

I hold out hope that the new well will reach its target. What I’m not too hopeful about is anything else working in the meantime. Other than Kevin Costner’s plan. Does this technology involve aquatic human mutants by any chance?

Just don’t. They carry coconuts around.

Coolest video I’ve seen in ages (audio is unnecessary).

Octopus is made of PURE WIN. This is seafloor footage we need more of.