Science Memes

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And that, my friends, is the Pleistocene. (mander.xyz)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

To make poop knives?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not quite. Guano was historically a source of saltpetre...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For real?!

TIL! Thanks for explaining.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

For real?!

Yup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano

Though its main use was as fertilizer, Guano was also sought for the production of gunpowder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate#From_caves

Major natural sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the accumulations of bat guano in caves. Extraction is accomplished by immersing the guano in water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water.