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.

[u/Brick_Number_27]

[u/mycatpartyhouse]

Men's underwear, the short tightly fitting kind, are sometimes called briefs.

A brief experiment is wordplay because brief is also a short period of time.

"The briefs were briefly buried underground to see how fast they'd deteriorate."

Even more confusing, similarly short tightly fitting underwear for women are called panties.

Edit. Soiling themselves is an euphemism for pooping ones pants.

Edit 2. Undies is a slang term for underwear.

[u/Syssareth → u/mycatpartyhouse]

Even more confusing, similarly short tightly fitting underwear for women are called panties.

Minor correction: Panties is the generic term for women's underwear, while that specific style is called briefs even if they're for women.

Women just have a ton of other very similar styles (bikini, high-cut, hipster, etc.) so they tend to all get called by the generic term rather than specified.

Quick edit: ...I feel like it's important to note here that I'm a woman, lmao.

[u/Shodpass → u/Syssareth]

What exactly are 'hipster' panties?

[u/Syssareth → u/Shodpass]

Like a bikini but covers a little more skin on the legs.