Ghosts of Nitrates Past
April 16th 2012 Valuable metals aren't the only thing to come out of northern Chile's barren ground. For a few short decades between the 1870s and the 1920s, this part of the world played a crucial role in world development as well as Chile's economic fortunes.
The reason? Plants need nitrogen to grow - but they can't extract it from air which is, in fact, full of it. Cultivating crops successf
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