Comments on: A urinely,Why not use it to make children's toys? Children are always breaking their toys.

A urinely,Why not use it to make children's toys? Children are always breaking their toys.

Astro Zombie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:02:24 -0800

What do you get when you mix vegetable oil and urine? No, it's not tome fetish -- well, not yet, anyway. It's self-healing rubber, of course. (Via.)

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:03:58 -0800

Tome? I don't know what that means either. I meant "a new."

By: Balisong

Balisong — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:06:21 -0800

Vegetable oil + urine + video camera + internet access = profit

By: GrammarMoses

GrammarMoses — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:09:07 -0800

Cool! (I love the Beeb's science coverage.)

By: Balisong

Balisong — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:09:33 -0800

From tires to condoms, this could revolutionize the world. "Just piss on it!" will be the new mantra.

By: oddman

oddman — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:09:37 -0800

Artificial ligaments are gonna be awesome.

By: heatherann

heatherann — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:11:47 -0800

"Children are always breaking their toys. Wouldn't it be nice if you could put them back together so easily?" Children also get their (broken) toys dirty. Somehow I suspect this would interrupt the healing process. How could you keep the toy's molecules from bonding with lint, slobber, etc.? Still cool, though.

By: nola

nola — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:12:13 -0800

Well that is just really cool.

By: googly

googly — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:16:16 -0800

Did you mean to link here?

By: Item

Item — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:16:38 -0800

AZ, how'd you get 'tome' from 'a new'?

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:19:15 -0800

'Tome' means something like 'book'.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:23:20 -0800

I think I may have meant "some," now that I look at it.

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:28:56 -0800

This reminds me of that scene in Blood Meridian when the Judge makes gunpowder. If only he'd known about the rubber, there could have been a whole other scene.

By: whir

whir — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:30:33 -0800

This would make a great stash case for jenkem.

By: Anything

Anything — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:59:06 -0800

Is this different from cold welding?

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:14:26 -0800

Man, I was hoping it was literally just vegetable oil + pee because I was going to start experimenting tonight.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:42:54 -0800

I love the Beeb's science coverage. Really? Or are you being sarcastic? I hope it's the latter. I hate how sloppy and simplified their coverage is. I know there's a lot of bad science journalism, but theirs is some of the worst. For example: The as-yet-unnamed material - a form of artificial rubber - is made from vegetable oil and a component of urine. Really? That's it? Care to tell us what that compound is, or are the masses to stupid to know? Turns out it's urea, the nitrogen of which is important for this technology to work. A couple of other articles mention this, but not The Beeb. Then, the rest of the article is full of nondescript analogies like "tiny hands," which totally sidestep the issues of presenting some fairly simple (at least, to get a superficial understanding of) science. Just googling a bit, I found a couple of better links: Xin-Hua gives a bit of an explanation as to how it actually works, and drops some science terms that an interested person could google to get a better understanding (not sure if this story is a reprint from elsewhere). Ars Technica also explains a little of the science behind it, and provides a little bit of context as to why this is novel. They also get major bonus points for linking to the abstract.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:51:00 -0800

What is all this SCIENCE you speak of? I want tiny hands!

By: Balisong

Balisong — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:56:07 -0800

[I] are the masses to stupid to know? Turns out it's urea, the nitrogen of which is important for this technology to work. [/I] You don't want the masses messing around with urea. Mix it with some diesel fuel and BOOM!

By: never used baby shoes

never used baby shoes — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:58:22 -0800

I used to quote SCIENCE, but then I was silenced all my life.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:11:38 -0800

Is there anything urine can't do?

By: samsara

samsara — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:13:10 -0800

I wonder what Stephen Hawking would say about somethin that once broken, rejoins anew?

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:15:07 -0800

They should call it Serious Putty.

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:32:09 -0800

So how easy would this be to make at home?

By: 80onelove

80onelove — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:39:37 -0800

Gotta tell you... just tried it, and... not so hot. Well, it's hot burning, but not hot hot.

By: Tube

Tube — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:50:39 -0800

Ureaka!

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:54:14 -0800

This is fantastic news. I suffer from gout, so making ligaments and cartilage replacements out of this stuff would make me a piss-driven Wolverine. I'd regenerate no matter what you did to me.

By: [son] QUAALUDE

[son] QUAALUDE — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:24:45 -0800

^^ ?

By: tehloki

tehloki — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:00:39 -0800

WARNING: this comment contains absolutely no SCIENCE! STOP READING THIS COMMENT! THERE IS NO SCIENCE IN IT!

By: Sparx

Sparx — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:23:19 -0800

What is all this SCIENCE you speak of? I want tiny hands! /applauds Astro Zombie

By: kcds

kcds — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:14:01 -0800

What we need more of is SCIENCE.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:41:42 -0800

And here I thought it was going to be salad dressing.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:13:02 -0800

Professor Ludwig Leibler needs to invest in a color video camera, so his demonstrations look less like Tool videos.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:55:33 -0800

Apparently writing the word "science" in allcaps creates epic lullz. Observe: SCIENCE. See how hard you're laughing?