C2 (Chemistry Connections): An Introduction

     Whenever one hears or sees the word “vermiculture”, one immediately thinks of subjects such as Biology or Environmental Science; however, contrary to popular belief, it also has connections to another science, Chemistry. As shocking as it seems, there are in reality many things in common with vermiculture and the science of Chemistry; these similarities are not in the practice of these two fields, but in their conceptual content.

     Take for example, the production of the compost by the worms; if a worm takes in around 5g of leaves, assuming that it retains all of its mass upon excretion, it should produce 5g of compost. This is in sync with the Law of Conservation of Mass developed by Chemist Antoine Lavoisier; the law states that matter can only undergo physical and chemical change and can neither be created nor destroyed (in a normal chemical reaction).

     “However,” you might be wondering, “I don’t think that the worm will excrete ALL of the 5g; therefore, the Law does NOT hold true?”. That is a very good point. Not ALL of what is eaten is excreted out, therefore there must be a flaw in Lavoisier’s Law, right? Wrong. Although not all of the food that is eaten is excreted, the food that IS excreted is merely the waste of the animal, the REST of the food was broken down in its stomach and converted into energy. Thus, with this in mind, we can say that Lavoisier’s law DOES hold true.

    Another, and our final, example would be the conversion of organic matter into compost; as you SHOULD know by now, in vermiculture, the worm takes in organic material such as leaves, breaks it down, and excretes soil as its waste (which can then be used as fertilizer). Now, you might ask “IS there a relation to Chemistry?”. To answer the question, THERE IS. The breaking down of complex matter (e.g. leaves) by the worm’s digestive system into simpler things (e.g. soil) can be likened to the conversion of compounds into elements (or the breaking down of complex matter into simpler particles), a very basic concept in Chemistry. It will be easier to find the link if you imagine the leaves as a compound which is then broken up by a chemical reaction (in the case of vermiculture the digestive system of the worm) and turned into (simpler) elements (the soil in the case of vermiculture). Thus, with that analogy in mind, the connection becomes quite obvious.

     Although it may seem irrelevant to know the connection between Chemistry and vermiculture, in reality it can be very useful. Knowing the connections between the different braches of science is important if you are to truly understand the concepts and processes in the individual fields of science; this is because the basic concepts of these individual fields are applicable to ALL sciences and therefore contribute much to the understanding of the processes in each field of science. We hope that this post has been very helpful to you; we also hope that the following posts on this topic may be just as helpful and relevant to you as this one was.

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