Pacific Science Center
Bringing science to life.
PacSci-Doku: “New Way to Make Bricks”
By Dennis Schatz – Senior Advisor
Do you Sudoku? It’s one of the hottest number games around! Well, here’s a twist we think you’ll love. We call it PacSci-Doku. Can you guess why? Here’s how it works. Instead of filling in the blanks with numbers, we use letters. Hidden in one of the columns or rows is the answer to a science question. You’ll find information about the answer on the answer tab below.
The question in this edition is:
What may your next house be made from?
To find the answer, complete this PacSci-Doku using the following nine letters:
O o I i D S s L B
Puzzle Difficulty: Easy
The Answer
The question in this edition is:
What may your next house be made from?
The answer: Biosolids
What you flush down the toilet ends up as sanitary biosolids after processing at your local sewage treatment plan. New York City alone produces 1,200 tons of biosolids each day – enough to fill 50 large trucks. The biosolids often get trucked to a landfill or can be use as fertilizer. But engineers in Australia have discovered a new use for the biosolids – pressing them into bricks for construction purposes. In a New York Times article, Abbas Mohajerani, at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology says, “Biosolids bricks look the same, smell the same and have similar physical and mechanical properties as normal fired clay bricks.” So don’t be surprised in the future when you buy a house made from something flushed down the toilet. Read the New York Times article about biosolids being used to make bricks.