Brits Advised to Spend a Penny on Their Gardens
The National Trust is encouraging their gardeners to urinate on bales of straw. A three-meter-long “pee bale” has been established at Wimpole Hall; gardeners visit the bale when nature calls (and when visitors are not present, because “we don’t want to scare the public.”) The bales are later added to the compost heap.
Only male gardeners are participating, in part because of some dubious claims regarding gender-based differences in urine: “There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but also male pee is preferable to women’s, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic.”
A secondary benefit is anticipated in terms of water conservation:
“An average flush of the lavatory can use anything from four and a half to nine litres of water each time, but what people may not realise is that this water is treated to the same standard as drinking water and shouldn’t be wasted.” Urinating outdoors or in the shower is advocated by environmental activists, including Cameron Diaz, as a way of tacking climate change by saving water and energy.
They are tentatively encouraging the public to follow their lead: ““Adding a little pee just helps get it all going; it’s totally safe and a bit of fun too.”
Links for the Telegraph and the BBC (where there is an explanatory video).
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Getting Electricity From Urine
Don’t dispose of that liquid gold, there’s money to be made from the hydrogen in it. Hydrogen can be an abundant source of energy, but it’s hard to store inexpensively:
Gerardine Botte, an Ohio University professor, sees the liquid as a solution thanks to the particular composition of its major component, urea. Its make-up, a 2-to-1 ratio of hydrogen and nitrogen, is convenient because hydrogen can be extracted from nitrogen using much less electricity than that needed to, say, pull apart hydrogen and oxygen. (It’s a matter of 0.037 Volts versus 1.23 Volts, if you really need to know.)
Botte has recently come up with a nickel-based electrode that can do just that: dip the electrode into urine, apply electrical current, and voila, hydrogen is released. While the research is still in an initial phase, it’s possible that urine could power cars, homes, and various devices in as near of a future as six months from now.
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Sour Candy Body Fluids
Imagine the reaction when people see you taking a sip from a urine specimen container! Formula P and Blood Sample are sour candy liquids packaged in specimen bottles. Guess which one is lemon and which is cherry. Link -via Unique Daily
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NoPoPo Battery is Powered by Pee-Pee
Did your gadget just run out of juice and there isn’t a RadioShack around for miles? Not a problem if you have this "rechargeable" NoPoPo (No Polution Power) battery. Just … um, pee into it:
The Nopopo batteries use a combination of magnesium and carbon that can be mixed with a variety of fluids (including urine) to produce a charge. These batteries only last around 500mAh, which is far less than your average alkaline AA battery, but at least you won’t have to kill the earth to recharge them.
Link – via Shiny Shiny
Previously on Neatorama: Urine-Powered Battery
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