00:00Here's something that I used to enjoy talking to my buddies about over a beer.
00:04You won't believe it. It's sand.
00:06You might not think it's so interesting, but I do.
00:08And one of the reasons is a very good book that a Popular Mechanics article on the topic is based
00:14on.
00:14It's a book called The World in a Grain by Vince Beisel.
00:18Well, what you can learn by reading these sources is that sand is an incredibly important resource for construction
00:25and also for other applications that are involved in manufacturing everything from the sand on a golf course
00:32where you go to microchips, as you might know.
00:36Those kinds of applications require special kinds of sand.
00:41So you might think, well, there's sand everywhere. It's in the Sahara. Why don't we just take it all?
00:45What we can't do with that sand is make it smooth enough so that it can provide us with these
00:52products
00:52that are highly refined and useful.
00:55So what's special about expensive sand is that the grains are very rounded by erosion.
01:01They're smooth. So your concrete doesn't break.
01:03So your microchips are perfectly aligned.
01:06And so your golf course sand lets you hit a perfect shot.
01:10Well, to get all of that sand, it's very expensive.
01:14And some of the means that people use around the world aren't always legal.
01:19So what happens is that in many places, whether it's Morocco or India, as our article discusses,
01:24or even right here in North America, there are illegal organizations, mafias essentially,
01:31that take the sand without authorization.
01:34And so they destroy beaches and riversides.
01:36And they can sometimes harm people too.
01:38So this seemingly boring topic actually has a lot to it.
01:42All right.
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