Want to know an amazing but gross thing ?
Some people in a university in my country (South Africa) have invented bricks made with urine.
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The young researchers managed to combine people’s urine, which had been collected from specially designed male urinals at the university’s engineering building, with sand and bacteria.
"The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation, not unlike the way seashells are formed. Loose sand is colonized with bacteria that produce urease. The urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a chemical reaction,” Senior Lecturer in Water Quality at UCT Dyllon Randall said, commenting on the matter.
“This cements the sand into any shape, whether a solid column or, now for the first time, a rectangular building brick,” he added.
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Should I be proud of that or embarrassed ?
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The young researchers managed to combine people’s urine, which had been collected from specially designed male urinals at the university’s engineering building, with sand and bacteria.
"The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation, not unlike the way seashells are formed. Loose sand is colonized with bacteria that produce urease. The urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a chemical reaction,” Senior Lecturer in Water Quality at UCT Dyllon Randall said, commenting on the matter.
“This cements the sand into any shape, whether a solid column or, now for the first time, a rectangular building brick,” he added.
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Should I be proud of that or embarrassed ?
