OPA Companion · today’s check-in
Welcome back. Stamps 01–03 are sealed. 04 and 05 are live — the regeneration cycles and the retrieval question. 06–08 are ahead of you. Obodat is still holding you to n = 6 on the cycle-4 nitrogen loss, and he is right. Your next real move: decide whether the nutrients survive regeneration, or prove they do not and say so out loud — either answer is the thesis.
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01
Saw it
Biloxi, summer 2010 — the islands closed, the governor said virtually no oil, the tar balls came anyway
age 10
02
Felt the physics
Paper towel on an oil spill in a wet driveway — the towel drinks the water and leaves the oil
freshman yr
03
Found the question
Auto parts lot in the rain — crew bags the sorbent, loads the truck. Where does the bag go?
master’s
04
Regeneration cycles
Do bound nutrients survive repeated squeezing? Cycle 4 says maybe not. n = 2 is not an answer
live
05
Retrieval at sea
If the sponge comes back, how? Booms, nets, tethers — or pump through it and never lift it
live
06
Biofilm vs pores
Does the bacterial film clog the sponge and kill its capacity on the second deployment?
ahead
07
The heavy end
Aromatics, resins, asphaltenes — the fraction nobody’s degradation number is counting
ahead
08
Off the bench
Eight years of reusable sorbents in the literature and the same single-use pads on the truck. Why?
ahead
The standing question, written on the back of a receipt and taped to the shelf over his bench since week one: "Where does the bag go?" Obodat has never asked him to take it down.