GoKawiil
Tech News
Researchers at the University of Zurich recruited 1,000 volunteers to bury cotton underpants in soil across Switzerland for two months as part of a citizen science project called 'Proof by Underpants.' After digging them up, scientists measured how much fabric had decomposed to gauge microbial activity and overall soil quality, publishing the results in Plants People Planet.
Agroscope researchers enlisted about 1,000 citizen scientists to bury more than 2,000 pairs of organic cotton underwear and 12,000 tea bags at 1,000 sites across Switzerland. After one and two months, participants dug up the items and returned them so scientists could measure how much material had been eaten away by soil organisms, using decomposition as a proxy for biological activity. Private gardens showed the highest soil activity of any land type tested, while lawns showed the lowest.