This headline by BBC Science Focus Magazine caught my eye the other day: “Scientists are burying 2,000 pairs of underpants in Switzerland.” What in the world?
Further research revealed that this is a ‘thing’ for those who love their mother earth: Bury your briefs (provided they be 100 percent cotton). Then dig them up later and inspect their holiness, that is, degradation due to desirable microorganisms in your earth.
“The more active microorganisms live in the soil, the faster and the more holistically the underpants will be eaten up.”
– Swiss research institute Agroscope
The BBC reports that volunteers will each receive two pairs of pants, along with tea bags as a control. One will be dug up after a month, the other after two months and both analyzed for holes. My observations:
- It is good that the scientists leave nothing to chance by not allowing helpers to bury their personal underwear. (Yuk!)
- This is a great example of a paired tea test (inside statistical joke).
Some farmers in southern Minnesota buried their undies a few years ago and discovered them to be completely disintegrated after only a couple of months—nothing left but the elastic bands. That is not surprising given the incredible fertility of land down there. As you can see in this report by MPR News, the remnants serve well for scaring off crows. However, I question the organizers’ judgement for naming this experiment “Soil Your Undies.” That is just gross.
For a more scientific approach to this methodology for assessing the quality of your soil, see this 2015 report from a research technician at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. However, though attention getting, using actual underwear versus cotton swatches may not be the best idea for quantitative measurements and decency—though the elastic bands can be very handy as I learned the hard way as a child with mischievous friends who liked to inflict wedgies.