Status Updates From The Blue Machine: How the O...

By the 1850s, half of Peru’s guano exports (200,000 tons of the stuff) ended up in Britain; it was the only manure British farmers bought in significant quantities. And what Britain appears to have done with it, more than anything else, was fertilize turnips.

i did not expect to learn some fascinating bird poop history from a book on the ocean

“One of the earliest people to start weaving a global pattern from these local oddities was an endlessly enthusiastic German naturalist and scientist, notable for describing broad swathes of our planet with both the skill of a scientist and the heart of a poet”

humboldt is following me through books now