This bacteria-coated fabric could help quickly clean up land-based oil spills

When you think of an oil spill, you might picture a dark slick spreading across the ocean. But many spills happen on land, threatening terrestrial ecosystems. In Colombia, hundreds of land-based oil spills happen every year—the result of either leaks from pipelines run by nationalized petroleum company Ecopetrol or pipeline attacks by Colombia’s National Liberation Army guerrillas.