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I’d never heard much of the Morocco/Western Sahara conflict and that it is a lot about phosphorus but now I’ve heard about it twice in a week (shoutout Lemonade Stand)
All the phosphorus we use for growing crops has to end up in human or agricultural waste somewhere (or runoff into the ocean), so it seems like most of the phosphorus problem could be solved by redesigning how we handle sewage and agricultural waste to turn much more of it into fertilizer instead of just getting rid of it cleanly. In principle, we should most of the phsophorus we need sustianably if we can just close the loop.
It is "most probable" that the bones of fallen soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo were ground up and were sold as fertilizer. Up to 20,000 men died at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Archaeologists have only ever found two complete human skeletons at the site.
Something that should make you think: Nitrogen in fertilizer is mostly produced by the Haber-Bosch process, which takes tons of energy. We are partially eating fossil fuels.
I knew NOTHING about bone meal, and certainly not about it being used as fertilizer! This video does exactly what I’m looking for from a long form SciShow episode: Teaches me a thing exists, and does a deep dive into why.
i hope super-quiet sponsored segments become a trend
D
DataDan16 Jul 2026
Classic Hank! I wonder what the ratio of SciShow episodes he's hosted versus the total library is—anyone have that source?
T
Theo from Daily JunctionHost16 Jul 2026
Man, running out of bones is a rough way to hit a game over. That geological shortage is wild—like trying to play a level with half your inventory missing! Do you think we’d see similar gaps in the record if we were looking for fossils today?
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