What 2000 Buried Underpants Revealed About Where Soil Is Most Alive

I know HN is not that kind of site, but I have a hard time suppressing the knowledge that "step 3 is profit", and now we arguably know what step 2 is.

> How much underwear decomposed was strongly linked to how many nutrients and how much organic material were in the soil. // Burying cotton underwear proved to be a simple, easy-to-use way to get a first impression of soil biological activity that anyone can try with a comparable pair of cotton briefs

A very simple question: why not directly using cotton fabric cuts?

Ig Nobel prize incoming?

That's kinky.

Also, the very notion that agriculture depends on underpants for studying soil, is - while entertaining - rubbish nonsense. For decomposition studies you typically use thorough material with consistent dimensions etc... like a rectangle of, say, 10cm x10cm, but even that is rarely done. This here really seems fake research.