Scientists make incredible breakthrough after studying human urine — here's how it could transform the way we grow food
That's because experts are finding that human urine aged in the sun for a couple of months can be an effective fertilizer and pesticide. It was discovered during a trial in Niger that tested pee as a soil treatment. Pest management ability was proved, too. It's a solution on multiple fronts, as soil quality in West Africa is often poor, and fertilizer costs can be prohibitive, all according to the report.
What's more, excess chemical fertilizers and pesticides can leach off the field, contaminating water sources. The fallout can cause environmental and health problems, according to North Dakota State University and Earth.org.
For its part, urine has all the key components to be a replacement, containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, according to findings highlighted by Scientific Research Publishing. That article included experts Ibrahim Boukari Baoua and Laouali Amadou, from the Dan Dicko Dankoulodo University of Maradi and the National Institute of Agricultural Research in Niger, respectively. Both researchers were quoted in the New Scientist report.
"The odor is very, very strong," Amadou said in the story, describing the sunbathed containers of urine. It's part of a process that kills pathogens. And while it's unclear why the urine keeps insects away, the experts surmise that smell may play a role, per the news site.
Baoua sees urine as a potential money-saving lifeline for strapped farmers in the region, noting that the sandy dirt requires "very" expensive treatments.
"Soil fertility is very low in West Africa," he added.
That's why recycling the human waste stream is an exciting possibility for the experts.
"The team found that plots treated with synthetic pesticides had the lowest insect damage. But those treated with human urine had 20.5 times less infestation than control areas and their crop yields were 1.8 times higher," according to the New Scientist report.
This isn't the only case of human waste being used in farming. Biosolids — treated human and industrial streams — are already spread on American farm fields. But farmers and watchdogs are starting to worry about the impact because forever chemicals are turning up in the leavings. Contaminated biosolids are linked to cattle deaths in Texas, among other worrisome reports.
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Urine isn't absent of potentially dangerous chemicals, either. Researchers recently found a couple of substances in human samples from South China. And in many places in the U.S., treated sewer sludge used as fertilizer on farms, once thought to be beneficial, has recently been found to contain PFAS "forever chemicals," and thus direct urine usage would likely need testing or filtration methods to avoid this as well.
Other research for better fertilizer management includes a hydrogel in Texas that is being worked on to catch excess nitrate from additives before it causes problems. In Africa, the experts plan to study the urine approach more closely to better understand why it works and how to improve its impact.
It's a good reminder to stay educated about our food system and policies regarding what's allowed to be used during crop production. You can support cleaner brands and even grow your own food, too. Try composting for a fertilizer alternative. You can make your own soil treatment without harmful chemicals as another planet-friendly option.
Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
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33 minutes ago
'Horror' in Gaza is 'incomprehensible,' says US doctor who treated patients there
Dr. Aqsa Durrani, an American physician who has been providing humanitarian work around the world for over 15 years, said amid the harrowing scenes of death and destruction in Gaza, one story especially sticks with her. Found injured and alone after an Israeli airstrike, a 4-year-old girl was taken to a trauma field hospital in central Gaza, she told ABC News. "She was completely in shock. She was not talking and [a colleague] decided, 'I have to take this little girl home and I have try to see if I can help her find her family,'" said Durrani, a pediatric ICU doctor and an epidemiologist who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza earlier this year. Durrani, who said her colleagues are working in conditions that are "incomprehensible," recently gained major attention for an interview on the digital platform "Humans of New York." "He has kids around her age. He tried to feed her, he tried have his kids play with her," Durrani told ABC News. "She was completely non-emotive -- for days. And for those days, he tried to find her family." He looked in the area where the airstrike hit -- a location where displaced people were sheltering -- but he wasn't able to find her family there, according to Durrani. "Finally, he said that he found a man who said that he had a niece that age and that they were staying in that area, so he brought him to her," Durrani said. "He said that when she saw him, she yelled out 'ammo,' which means uncle in Arabic, and she ran to him and hugged him. And it was the first time [my colleague] had heard her speak," Durrani said. But this was only one child and it took days to find her family because they had been displaced multiple times, Durrani told ABC News. "I said, 'It's so beautiful that you took her and you were able to reunite her with her uncle.' And he said, 'I have to do that. I have do that because I have to believe that someone will do that for me when this happens to me, or someone will do that for my children,'" Durrani said. "I think the story exemplifies every aspect of the horror that everyone is experiencing," Durrani said. Durrani was based in central Gaza -- working at a trauma field hospital there -- from Feb. 24 to April 24, witnessing the end of Israel's ceasefire agreement with Hamas and the weekslong blockade on all humanitarian aid. Field hospitals -- which are tents and semi-permanent structures -- were meant to offload existing hospitals. At the field hospital where Durrani worked, they were only able to provide care to injured or burn patients, she said. "We could not possibly provide other services with the circumstances that we were in," Durrani said. "We really had to keep it to lifesaving trauma service." "Now, most of the patients that they're receiving are injured at these supposed aid-distribution sites. 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"We've had physicians who receive their own family members in the ER during during mass casualty incidents. They're enduring these horrors and also working to provide care in those circumstances," she said. "What I cannot stress enough is that they -- even in those circumstances, and even despite relentless trauma -- were providing beautiful, compassionate, evidence-based care," Durrani said. Durrani recalled one day when they "called a child psychiatrist, who was one of the only child psychiatrists in the whole Gaza Strip, he was so apologetic that he could not come to see the children that day and told us that it was because he was actually himself displaced that day, and that he had lost some of his family members." The majority of their patients were women and children "even though our hospital was for everyone," she said. "We would round on all of the injured patients with the surgeons and go patient by patient. And often there were airstrikes nearby, and the Palestinian doctors and nurses would just speak louder over the bombs. And just continue providing compassionate care to the patients as we continued down the line," Durrani said. Food was becoming more scarce toward the end of Durrani's time in Gaza, she said. "Much of our days were actually spent trying to work with other organizations to see if we could find any food to give anyone. At the end, I was only able to provide patients with one meal per day, and mothers and children were sharing one portion of one meal," she said. "I even had one mother say, 'Is there anything you can give my child to distract him from the hunger?' And this was a child who had been burned by a fire that resulted from an airstrike," she said. Durrani said she believes the conditions in Gaza are a "deliberate choice" made by Israeli leadership, and called on the U.S. government to withdraw its support for what she called "complete indiscriminate" violence. The Israeli government has denied that it is limiting the amount of aid entering Gaza and has claimed Hamas steals aid meant for civilians. Hamas has denied those claims. Israel's cabinet has approved plans to expand its military campaign in Gaza, drawing widespread criticism from the United Nations and key allies including Germany. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8 the escalation "will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, [and] senseless destruction." More than 100 aid groups have warned of "mass starvation" in Gaza, describing a dire food shortage due to the Israeli government's siege. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer pushed back, saying "there is no famine" in Gaza. He blamed Hamas and called the food crisis in Gaza "a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas." A USAID analysis appeared to undercut Israeli assertions about the extent to which Hamas has allegedly stolen humanitarian aid. A presentation reviewed by ABC News, examining more than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or loss of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza, showed that the group failed to find any evidence that Hamas engaged in widespread diversion of aid to cause the amount of hunger seen in the strip. Durrani said providing medical aid in the Gaza Strip was an experience unlike any other. "It's dystopian, but it elicits a very visceral response. It's just completely unfathomable that it's actually, real, everything around you. I entered through the Karam Shalom crossing and we drove through Rafah and Rafah was at that point, even in late February, almost completely destroyed. It just looked like a dystopian reality," Durrani said.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Operation Warp Speed was miraculous. Trump admin should not abandon technology that made it possible
"From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action to develop a safe and effective vaccine at breakneck speed… We harnessed the full power of government, the genius of American scientists, and the might of American industry to save millions and millions of lives all over the world… The gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months." That's not a pharmaceutical company executive, scientist or public health official talking. It's President Donald Trump. President Trump made those remarks in 2020 at a White House summit celebrating his administration's Operation Warp Speed initiative. Traditional vaccines often take years to develop. But thanks to a groundbreaking technology called mRNA and tremendous partnerships between government agencies and private companies, a powerful vaccine for COVID-19 was developed less than a year after the virus was sequenced. His prediction that those vaccines would be a game-changer turned out to be correct. COVID-19 vaccines saved at least 3.2 million lives in the United States and millions more around the world. During a very dark time, it was an incredible achievement for our country. Yet Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining that achievement by canceling substantial federal research investments in mRNA – the technology that has already led to approved vaccines for COVID-19 and RSV, and holds tremendous potential for future treatments and cures for many diseases. Instead of supporting researchers on the verge of revolutionizing vaccine science and saving countless lives, Secretary Kennedy has chosen to tie their hands. This decision will slow our progress, leave our nation underprepared for the next major public health emergency, and significantly damage America's leadership in the scientific and medical fields. President Trump should direct Secretary Kennedy to immediately reverse this shortsighted decision. As a pediatrician for more than 30 years, I cared for children from all walks of life. Some had great health insurance; others had none. Some lived in wealthy neighborhoods; others grew up in poverty. But regardless of their circumstances, I strived to give every one of my patients the best possible care. That's how every doctor should approach medicine, and it's also how policymakers should approach their jobs. Health is too important to be politicized. Scientists have been studying mRNA technology for decades, and the more than 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered worldwide since 2020 have allowed researchers to assess their impact. The results are clear. mRNA technology has already saved millions of lives. It is also incredibly safe; the vast majority of side effects associated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are minor and do not require medical intervention. The beauty of this particular technology is that scientists can quickly update and adapt those vaccines to keep up with changes in the viruses they are targeting without sacrificing quality or safety. But the potential benefits of mRNA technology go well beyond a single virus. Scientists are working on mRNA vaccines and treatments that can target multiple types of cancer, genetic disorders, several other respiratory viruses and all kinds of rare diseases. Funding mRNA research now is also critical to helping us get ahead of the next big public health emergency, whenever and wherever it arrives. That is why Secretary Kennedy's decision to terminate federal mRNA research investments and instead rely on older and slower vaccine technology is deeply flawed. Health secretaries should not be denying Americans proven medical care. Stopping medical innovation in its tracks purely for ideological purposes is just wrong. When it comes to your health, listen to the people you trust the most – your doctor or nurse – rather than politicians. As President Trump has said, COVID-19 vaccines are a "medical miracle," and mRNA holds so much promise for more Operation Warp Speed-type victories in the years ahead. But for that to happen, politicians need to unleash American innovation and let our scientists and researchers do what they do best.
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘Everyone closed the door on us': Kids in Gaza need medical treatment, and US should help
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