5 interests about poop of the U.S. government

Because poop is a serious matter

Poop is everywhere and can be a significant source of interest in a variety of fields. That’s why this is an area where even the American government is doing experiments.

As explained here, there are at least 5 fields where the U.S. is doing research when it comes to poop.

Protecting presidential poop

Even though it doesn’t seem to be their standard operating procedure, there is at least one verified piece of evidence for a Secret Service division called TOILSEC. Toilet Security, or TOILSEC, was used when George W. Bush traveled to Austria. He employed a customized toilet that kept his waste hidden from prying eyes, perhaps frightened that someone planned to redirect the president’s turds from a public toilet in order to test them for insights into the president’s health.

Keeping standard turd samples

When standardizing and measuring various items, it’s crucial to have a recognized baseline or control. Without comparing them to a common sample, it would be next to impossible to tell how different metrics compare. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, steps in to help with that. Manufacturers and others turn to NIST for the officially sanctioned recipe when they require a standardized version, to compare their product to.

The term “domestic sludge”, which is essentially powdered feces, is one of the items kept at NIST. It’s not difficult to see the advantages of using healthy human feces as a standard measuring stick for medical purposes.

Poop on the moon experiments

Everyone is aware that we left some items on the moon, such as a flag and some footprints. The fact that the Apollo flights also left a few artifacts they’re presumably far less proud of is less mentioned, though. One of the items they jettisoned was bags full of astronaut poop to make room for the weight of the moon rocks they planned to bring back for research.

In addition, the lunar excrement is currently the focus of the intense scientific investigation since, by adding turds to the moon’s lifeless surface, we also brought bacteria and other kinds of life. Scientists believed that any life left behind through trash would soon be exterminated by cosmic radiation.

Poop surveillance systems

We’ve already established that there is a substantial medical benefit to your poo.

Sewage surveillance, as described by the scientists involved as “picking through human shit for signs of sickness“, has been intensified and is advised for use in a variety of infectious disease research.

Poop mining

As you would have guessed, it turns out that our late meal also contains trace amounts of valuable metals, which must already be screened out in order to convert our waste into fertilizer that can then be applied across the nation.

Now, however, there are arguments in favor of mining these minute quantities of poop-encased precious metals. One argument claims that a city of a million people could be spitting out $13 million worth of precious metal particles annually. Anyway, it’s interesting to consider the possibility that you could be passing the very same metals that will power your future mobile phone.