Tag: chemistry

Does poop contain gold?

The other day I was in a conversation that got random really fast. Someone started sharing some scientific trivia, and they said you could burn a bucket of cow manure and get some rare elements like gold. I was immediately skeptical and made that known. They went to get their book of random scientific stuff (not the actual title) and found the reference. It turns out that someone had taken cow urine and boiled it to produce something useful. At this point I’m still skeptical, but figure since it’s actually published in a book and not just some obscure blog, it’s worth a minute of research. The results were surprising (and not all related to the original article)…

Apparently some doctor in India believes that cow urine has healing powers and can supposedly cure 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes. It’s also sold as “highly effective products for preventive medicine” in some countries. (So if you don’t get sick, it worked, and you should buy more!) However — and this is important — there is thus far no scientific proof about it healing anything. Some studies have shown that it can lead to significant side effects, including death. So I wouldn’t recommend it. But it is good to use as fertilizer to grow actually edible food…

During my research, I saw where one guy said, “I drink cow urine every day. That is why I do not have Covid right now.” That is faulty reasoning, and it could easily be countered by someone saying they do NOT drink cow urine at all, and thus they don’t have Covid. But then again, how many people who drink cow urine every day catch Covid? The number has to be really small, right? (Surely there are very few people who could even be in that group.)

Some doctor made a “wonder drug” of cow’s milk, cow’s urine, cow excrement (soaked in water), and butter, and they claimed it will cure “99 percent of diseases”. I’m no professional doctor, but I’m fairly certain that’s a load of crap (both literally and figuratively).

Back on point, there has been someone who claimed to have found gold in cow urine and dung. Perhaps if you want to investigate the microscopic level you could find some — I have heard that ocean water has gold in it, but it’s such tiny amounts that it’s not worth doing anything with.

Thanks to the internet’s amazing ability to lead you down rabbit trails you didn’t even know existed, I just learned that human poop does contain trace amounts of gold, silver, platinum, copper, and rare elements like palladium and vanadium that are used in cell phones and computers. So is your poop worth its weight in gold? Not quite. These particles are about 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair, and of course there are other non-valuable particles in there to sort through. (That job would stink!) It’s estimated that an American city with a population of 1 million sends down the drain about $13 million worth of precious metals each year. So maybe it’s worth finding some automated way to filter it. Actually, I bet this becomes a legitimate business someday, when someone figures out how to efficiently extract the valuable elements from all the worthless elements.

People have tried to figure out alchemy for years (converting a metal into gold), but perhaps this is the closest we’ll get.

the special days of November, pt 1

It’s now November (albeit halfway over), and like we did last month, we’re going to look at some of the special holidays this month.  I’m going to cover only maybe half of them, because there’s a bunch (and some are just stupid).   You can find the full listing at other sites, but you can find our original commentary and analysis on these special holidays only at this site.  Let’s begin with the month-long celebrations.

November is :

  • National Model Railroad Month — I’d like to have one of those huge model railroad sets, because I like trains, and I’d do some interesting things with it.  The background scenery would be really cool and random, and I’d be tempted to make multiple trains race toward each other and crash on a bridge, like Gomez Addams did for one of his hobbies on The Addams Family TV series.  He also made the bridge explode at just the right time.  (That really was a great show.)
  • Peanut Butter Lovers Month — This one requires no explanation.  But I will make a suggestion or two — you can mix it with jelly, of course, or you can mix it with chocolate.  Mmm…
  • Good Nutrition Month — This must be some type of mistake.  Why would someone schedule this the same month as Thanksgiving?  That just makes no sense.  Because during the Thanksgiving holiday (which can stretch over a few days, as far as the eating is concerned), all diets are declared null and void.  In addition to eating lots of the main dishes like turkey, ham, dressing, etc., desserts will also be consumed in large quantities.  Pecan pie is a regular at my get-togethers.  I propose we move Good Nutrition Month to January, when everyone wants to start diets.
  • National Blog Posting Month — This is obviously a new one, and thus isn’t on some of the lists I’ve seen.  The idea is for bloggers to try to publish at least thirty posts in thirty days.  That’s a noble idea, for sure, but it’s just not gonna happen here.  This is another holiday that could be scheduled better, like during the middle of winter when there’s no major holidays and when it’s too cold to be outside much.  Besides, I’ve got too much stuff to do for writing every day.  🙂

Now let’s look at some of the week-long celebrations :

  • Week 1 — Chemistry Week — Some school students may think chemistry is boring, and with certain teachers it is, but it can be a really cool subject.  Certain combinations of ingredients create explosions, which is cool.  And if you study how the basic elements form compounds that are essential to life, it reveals the magnificence of creation, which points to God, our Creator.
  • Week 3 — Game and Puzzle Week — It’s a good excuse to bring out some board games, which tend to get neglected with all the modern technology we have.  So bring out Monopoly and/or dominoes, to suggest a few.  (BTW, did you know you can get Monopoly in all kinds of “flavors” now?  I’ve seen one for Transformers, Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc.  You can even create your own version on their website and they’ll send it to you.)

I’ll continue this in the next post, or it’s going to get really long…