Monday, May 25, 2020

Last Laugh

Today's post should be filed under learning something new,at least for me. I knew nitrous oxide was aka laughing gas and I guess I knew that it makes people high but I didn't know that penguin poop when mixed with soil made nitrous oxide so potent that the scientists involved in the study became ill after inhaling it during their study. I don't know why they weren't wearing some type of filters to prevent that from happening. I also didn't realize that nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas and is 300 times more polluting than CO2. In case anyone is wondering why they were studying penguin feces it was to determine how to control the amount of nitrogen used in fertilizers to offset the nitrous oxide it forms.
A colony of King penguins is pictured on July 1, 2007 on Possession Island in the Crozet archipelago in the Austral seas. (Photo by MARCEL MOCHET / AFP) (Photo credit should read MARCEL MOCHET/AFP via Getty Images)
Emperor penguins in the Antarctic

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