Scientists asked 1,000 people to bury their underwear — what they found surprised them
It sounds more like a prank than a scientific experiment: Take a clean pair of cotton underwear, bury it in the ground, leave it there and then dig it up again. But researchers in Switzerland had a serious reason for asking 1,000 people to do exactly that. Get updated faster and for FREE: Download the Gulf News app now - simply click here. Five years after volunteers buried more than 2,000 pairs…
Swiss scientists enlisted 1,000 citizen researchers to bury their cotton underwear in various locations across the country in order to study soil decomposition. Over five years, more than 2,000 pairs of underpants and 12,000 tea bags were buried at around 1,000 sites, representing gardens, farms, meadows, and lawns. The experiment, named "Proof by Underpants," aimed to reveal how land use impacts biological activity beneath the soil.
Cotton, which is made largely from cellulose, can be broken down by microorganisms in soil. Researchers distributed organic cotton underwear to citizen scientists, who later dug up the garments and analyzed them for decomposition. The study, published in the journal Plants, People, Planet, found that land use was the most important predictor of decomposition, with private gardens showing the greatest activity, followed by croplands, grasslands, and lawns.
The Underpants Index, comparing decay rates of the underwear to those of tea bags, provided a simple indicator of soil biological activity, though not a complete diagnosis of soil health.
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