User blog comment:Scooter8pie/Alchemy and the Brown Mob/@comment-4583259-20111120150034

It seems I have been the beneficiary of alchemy for a while and didn't know it.

When I encounter a Brown Mob explosion pit containing Astronauts, I typically clean up the edges and flatten the bottom to make it a more permanent holding pen for astronauts. I rebuild the edges using the same material that was there before, so if it's in an ice-lake I use ice to rebuild.

One time, I was watching as the astronauts and brown mobs spawned right in front of my eyes. (The music started playing at the same moment, possibly a coincidence). I probably went over and cleaned up the pit right away, and my map program now shows that I have some blocks of Unknown material on the edge of that astronaut pit. So I must have picked up the new material Unknown (which is the alchemy product of ice) when I rebuilt the edges of that pit.