t brains. We can precisely hit targets across the globe by navigating a predator from our soil. Now a broken pipe is spewing millions of gallons of oil 5000 feet under the ocean. Those who put that pipe down do not know how to plug it. Where are our brains? Did we stop teaching science and technology in our schools? Do you know how to plug this stuff? If you know how it can be plugged, post it here.The Story: A 21 inch pipe, 5000 feet below the sea level, is spewing thousands of gallons of oil beginning April 20. It so happened that BP knew how to siphon the oil, never knew how to fix a pipe if it were to break beneath the ocean floor. BP engineers are trying hard to plug the hole. First they lowered a 60-foot dome to contain and collect the leaking oil in a controlled manner. That failed. Next they lowered a 5-foot "top hat" dome in the hope that it would help them to draw up the leaking
oil to the surface, but failed. As a third attempt they inserted a 6-inch pipe into the 21-inch leaking pipe and started collecting 2000 barrels a day. BP estimated around 5000 barrels being gushed out into the ocean every day, while a Purdue scientist put this figure at whopping 70,000 barrels. The news is that huge oil plumes that extend miles have been formed in the Gulf.Where is our science and technology leadership? What surprised me was not the leak, why no one had a clue how to plug it. When I take my family out to the park in the summer I will have an extra bottle of water in the car, just in case! When we call four people home for dinner we cook for two more, just in case! If we dont have food or time to cook we simply do not call them home! When you write a grant application to granting agencies, you need to write a separate section called "Potential Problems and Alternate Strategies", because those who give money need to know that in case what you propose do not work, you have a plan B. When you draw out oil from 5000 feet below the water, lots of things can go wrong, so you expect to have redundant and fail-safe plans B, C and D which are mutually independent. If I do not carry enough water in my outing, only my family and I suffer. If you do not get the grant funded only your personnel and you will suffer. But if some one spills millions of gallons of oil in to the ocean, the society will suffer. Is it a social crime? I do not know. (There might be some one out there saying you can dump lot more in ocean, ocean can take it!) . The leak needs to be plugged ASAP, we do not want the Mayan's 2012 consume us sooner.
If you know of a method to plug this pipe, post it here.
(Photos: Courtesy NASA; Video from Youtube)
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