Athletes often insert a number of superstitious rituals into their everyday routine. One of the more bizarre rituals came to light in the past decade thanks to former Major League Baseball Moises Alou, who admitted to urinating on his hands to toughen his skin and eliminate calluses. While Alou is retired, the ritual…

Back in the day, the medical analysis of urine relied on, well, a doctor's five senses and superstition. But sometimes physicians needed a little extra help in divining the ramifications of some dubious tinkle.

The Chinese soft-shelled turtle looks like someone glued the snout of a pig onto the face of a fish, with the texture of a scrotum for good measure. But its bizarre appearance pales in comparison to an even more bizarre, and newly discovered, habit: it urinates through its mouth.

Perhaps you have been put on an impromptu space flight. Perhaps you're trapped with minimal supplies . . . in the Atacama Desert. Perhaps you're just bored and want to figure out how strong a stomach you have. Whatever your reasoning, learn about the right way to filter urine.

That's the recommendation from a new report by the US National Research Council, who say reclaimed waste water is needed as a necessary substitute for the dwindling supply of freshwater. What's more, reprocessed urine might actually be cleaner than freshwater.

Yesterday we discussed the horrors of the Russian drug krokodil. This flesh-eating heroin-like substance may seem like the most nightmarish of all nightmares, but there are plenty of other toxic (and just plain grody) substances out there, ready to be consumed for no good reason. Here are 10 more intoxicating things…

Some chimps and gorillas were given a long vertical tube with a peanut at the bottom. To reach the treat, the primates realized they had to add water to the tube...and one chimp came up with a uniquely gross solution.

I can't imagine a more moving tribute to the final flight of the space shuttle Discovery. This shooting star photographed on March 8 is almost certainly the waste water from Discovery...in other words, a whole lot of astronaut urine.

No question is too small for science, and there is a body of research devoted to determining the whos and hows of the asparagus smell of human urine. Here's a snapshot of said research.

A revolutionary new fuel cell could take in urine and produce electricity and clean water. It might sound silly, but a prototype already exists, and it could provide the unlikeliest possible solution to third world energy and clean water problems.