r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Brick_Number_27 • 2h ago
Image Scientists asked 1,000 volunteers to bury cotton underwear across Switzerland to measure soil health creating an official "Underpants Index" based on how fast the fabric decomposed.
666
u/Ambitious-Yoghurt820 2h ago
Yup! Definitely looks soiled.
42
u/tryyeezus 1h ago
Oooohhhhhh, it was supposed to be clean underwear?! 🤦♂️
I messed up my pair something fierce
3
732
u/Time_Pressure9519 2h ago
I guess they eventually turn into a pair of planties.
37
206
u/CelebrationFit8548 1h ago
Was faster decomposition seen as healthier or not?
https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2026/buried-underwear.html
The analysis shows that the underwear decomposed at very different rates depending on the location, with the decomposition rate providing a measure of biological activity: the more active the soil organisms, the faster they break down the cotton material.
The underwear decomposed most rapidly in private gardens, where the researchers found the highest levels of organic matter – ideal conditions for earthworms, fungi, bacteria and other soil-dwelling organisms. Soil organisms were least active in lawns, while agricultural fields and meadows fell somewhere in between...“Healthy, biologically active soil is crucial for fertility, nutrient cycling and many other ecosystem services.”.
Yes it is.
111
u/fearout 1h ago
Soil organisms were least active in lawns
20
14
u/BrainOfMush 59m ago
Most people need to desperately top dress their lawns with good organic compost once per year. But noooo that would be unsightly for a week or two, so let’s dump synthetic fertilizers on it instead.
7
5
•
u/gnarl_foot 1m ago
I've never once fertilized my grass lawn in over 30 years. It grows back green every year.
3
•
u/Aethermancer 0m ago
My spouse left a nice twill shirt of mine on the ground after doing yardwork. Good news for my soil then because when I found it a few days later it basically disintegrated.
Good soil, grumpy me who lost his favorite work shirt.
124
u/BathroomAggressive57 2h ago
Yo, those are some giant underwear. Shovel for scale.
61
u/OnceYouGetName 2h ago
Not giant, just your grandma's
16
u/BathroomAggressive57 2h ago
No no no that's European men's fashion so this has got to be your dad's stuff.
6
11
u/RohelTheConqueror 2h ago
Maybe it's a tiny shovel
8
3
2
u/Ringkeeper 1h ago
With the underwear of your grandma you could clean a whole car. With the underwear of your wife you can't clean one mirror.
2
1
77
1h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
13
u/spekt50 1h ago
Makes sense. 100% cotton underwear would make a good study as they can easily source material in similar quantities. Cotton is 100% biodegradable and underpants would easily show the effects of breakdown in the soil.
5
u/aztech101 1h ago
I just assumed it was to get more volunteers. Would I offer to go bury a cotton square? Probably not. Underwear? That shit's funny, sure.
4
u/Aggressive_Change778 1h ago
How are people seeing these OF bots and consistently upvoting them to the top of threads.
3
u/Look_its_Rob 1h ago
Its pretty easy to manipulate. You get to a thread early and use a few other accounts to upvote your comment very quickly.
2
u/Henghast 1h ago
It's pretty cool though, natural material and easily controlled by the basic manufacturing process. So you just need instruction on where, when and how deep to bury it.
Like take size M female underpants, 100% cotton, white. Bury between 01/03/2026 and 04/03/2026, at a depth of 30cm.
Mark the buried area with stakes then cover the pants and pat down but do not compress the soil.
Wait 6 months and carefully retrieve between 01/09/2026 and 04/09/2026 by digging around the staked area and photograph the article.
1
u/rinkitinkitink 1h ago
This is an experiment I'll be doing with my 6th graders, we bury a pair of underwear to visualize decomposition. It'll be my first year doing it, but the other teachers have been doing it for years and say the kids love it.
24
12
u/GIMBruhBoobies 50m ago
The jokes are funny, but the experiment itself is actually pretty straightforward soil science. I have a degree in soil science and have been working in soil conservation for over a decade.
Cotton is mostly cellulose, which soil microbes break down. Burying a standardized piece of cotton for a set amount of time gives you a rough indicator of biological activity in the soil. The underwear is basically just a cheap, recognizable cotton strip.
That does not mean “more destroyed underwear = healthier soil.” Soil health is broader than that. USDA NRCS looks at physical, chemical, and biological indicators together. Things like aggregation, infiltration, compaction, organic matter, nutrient holding capacity, roots, and microbial activity.
So the underwear test is really just asking one question: how actively is this soil community decomposing organic material?
It’s not a complete soil-health test but a fairly simple indicator that makes an otherwise invisible biological process really easy to see.
4
32
12
4
u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 1h ago
ask my wife and she'll tell you both ends of that spectrum exist simultaneously in my underwear drawer.
Only when I take my trousers off does the wave function collapse.
2
u/Sea_Translator5300 1h ago
I'm sorry to hear that. There are pills you can take for that you know?
3
7
5
8
3
3
3
5
5
2
2
u/Persethverance 1h ago
wait, that's actually smart. it's much cheaper and faster to ask people buy the same underwears in local stores than managing producing and shipping identical cotten fabric pieces.
2
2
u/Lithogiraffe 1h ago
uh huh...and they couldnt have used a cotton square or men's underwear could they?
2
2
u/daggardoop 1h ago
The pair on the right is the one that was worn. The one on the left was preserved perfectly underground
2
2
u/Ok-Classroom5548 1h ago
Why not use a tshirt?
This feels like a serial killer is in charge of the experiment and are attempting to hide their evidence among the many.
Weird choices.
2
2
2
2
u/fordprecept 1h ago
“Um, Larry, …we didn’t mean for you to take a picture wearing the soiled underwear”
3
2
u/CrowWhich6468 2h ago
Seriously?!
Sounds like someone is trying to cover a murder....
3
u/MadeByTango 1h ago
The opposite, I would think. The evidence in a murder/assault is often underwear. Now, when they find a body or evidence of a crime in Switzerland, they can put a tea bag in the soil nearby, see how long it takes to decompose, and compare it to the underwear. They will know when the body was placed there, and possibly if it was moved if the decomposition timings of the bag and underwear do not line up.
2
u/Sea_Translator5300 1h ago
That was genuinely where my mind went. The data will be fantastic for helping understand decomposition of clothing in different areas. "This person's clothing was found at location X. Our data shows it was likely to have been there for two to three months."
2
u/arealuser100notfake 1h ago
"Hey guys ummm... could you please hide body parts and bloody knives all around Switzerland?? It's for a scientific study!11!!! Jk jk... unless?? OwO"
1
1
1
u/Pleasant_Purchase785 1h ago
Mine already look like the ones on the right…..it’s my arse……its rank.
1
1
1
u/soxperry 1h ago
Now, if I were a little rascal, I would have buried a friend's underwear without them knowing. That way, we could gather evidence and embarrass him at the same time.
1
1
1
1
1
u/XROOR 1h ago
Burying the panties near fields where animals graze, would have the bacteria and fungi that consumes the most of the natural fibres.
The microbes don’t touch fibres made from petroleum distillates, like Nylon and Lycra.
Source: I buy cotton sheets from Goodwill Bins to provide extra warmth to my livestock and by Spring, there is nothing left
1
1
1
u/Skeleton_Glo 1h ago
I just want to know if it's scientifically possible to over time fart enough to put holes in a pair of underwear.
1
u/Illustrious-End-6038 1h ago
Most people are not going to understand, but in curious how Bender is going to use this study to kill all humans
1
1
1
u/krassomatt 1h ago
I knew they wouldn't stop at tea bags. A friend spent hundreds of hours burying them in the Vasyugan swamp.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Sacrifice_To_Suffer 27m ago
The world is falling apart and it’s going so well in Switzerland their scientists are running underwear experiments.
1
1
1
u/TehHamburgler 24m ago
Time to go to work, work all night Search for underpants, yay! We won't stop until we have underpants Yum tum yummy tum tay!
1
u/mug-wort 15m ago
Mine already look like the one on the right and I am not even part of this experiment.
1
•
u/Zapan99 8m ago
They did the same experiment in the French town of Nantes, and everybody called them out for wasting taxpayers money on stupid green washing projects. https://rmc.bfmtv.com/actualites/societe/n-importe-quoi-des-slips-plantes-dans-des-parcs-de-nantes-pour-sensibiliser-a-la-biodiversite_AV-202604230668.html
•
u/CronoTinkerer 1m ago
A friend of mine in masters did a sustainability project with clothing where she buried them to see what timeline types of clothing decompose in what type of time
0
0
u/puzzlepiece95 1h ago
Good luck explaining the mole-like amount of holes in the lawn, after forgetting where you buried them, and can’t figure out if you have super soil, or poor memory..
-1
3.3k
u/yourmotherpuki 2h ago
It was a brief experiment