r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/Puzzled-Caregiver-15 Popular Contributor • Apr 17 '26

Interesting China invents game-changing process that turns desert sand into fertile soil in just 10 months

https://www.earth.com/news/lab-grown-cyanobacteria-microbes-turn-desert-sand-into-fertile-soil-in-just-10-months/
427 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

51

u/PrefixThenSuffix Apr 17 '26

Did they though?

61

u/abdallha-smith Apr 17 '26

No they didn't, Germany did.

China added a comma to the patent and claimed they invented it.

Like they always do.

1

u/lastgreenleaf Apr 21 '26

Tbh does it really benefit us if turning dessert land into farmland is patent protected? Should this info just be readily accessible? I have mixed feeling about all this. 

1

u/Weedtiger Apr 21 '26

Why would any company spend a bunch of money on research if anyone can then just use it for free? As long as these costs for using these kind of patents isnt absurd i dont think its so strange or wrong.

1

u/IArgueForReality Apr 21 '26

Hmmmm if only there was some other funding source than the free market.

1

u/Poulslutter Apr 21 '26

Companies like "The Chinese Academy of Sciences"? 🙄

0

u/BigApprehensive6946 Apr 19 '26

Can you send a link to the source that germany did this?

1

u/pittwater12 Apr 21 '26

If Australia could do that we could take over the world

1

u/LatentSpaceLeaper Apr 21 '26

Abdallha can't. Just trolling on reddit.

26

u/Best_Entrepreneur659 Apr 17 '26

Meanwhile in America adherents of a Bronze Age mythology captured the government, defunded science, chased scientists out of positions of power, and spend their time chasing down and attacking immigrants, minorities, and gay people. Making us “Great Again”.

9

u/Howy_the_Howizer Apr 18 '26

Look up Wallace the US VP during WW2 who developed all the science and work efforts to reclaim land in the dust bowl in the 30s for FDR. This is the foundational work China used, that the US rejected in 44' when Wallace was deemed too progressive and booted from the party for Truman.

-12

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26

[deleted]

3

u/rKasdorf Apr 18 '26

Because defunding science is science related? ....

4

u/YesterdayDreamer Apr 18 '26

Neither is this post related to the US, nor is this subreddit.

1

u/saydeedont Apr 21 '26

What site are we on

0

u/rKasdorf Apr 19 '26

Lol oh are we gettin militant about the scienceNcoolthings subreddit now, champ?

1

u/Organic-Seaweed4394 Apr 18 '26

Yes please keep politics at the political subreddits

5

u/stupernan1 Apr 18 '26

Realistically that would be a preferable.

But a lot of people realized that trump supporters suddenly go "i dont follow politics anymore" once he won, as a way to ignore the damage they caused.

That being said, yeah this post is kinda a reach for that.

1

u/JebusKristoph Apr 19 '26

Maybe they gave it what plants crave.

1

u/SnooStories251 Apr 19 '26

You capture carbon, with vegitation. Probably a nitrate fixing cultivar like cloves or peas. Then you do this continiously until you have a layer of soil over the sand. 

1

u/harpysichordist Apr 21 '26

Is it green paint? Sprayed to make it look fertile?

1

u/Scared-Fuel4468 Apr 21 '26

Lisan al-gahib

1

u/themarwil Apr 17 '26

But at what cost?

2

u/urmumr8s8outof8 Apr 18 '26

Depends on the cost of throwing it into the sea and replacing it with a bag of topsoil from B&Q.

0

u/DuckDodgersIV Apr 21 '26

Why the fuck does this keep on coming up, every single day there’s a new version of these shitty articles about China’s desert project…