1 Asparagus
Consuming asparagus affects the smell of urine, but only 22% of the population have the gene to smell it.
2. In ancient India, Diabetes was called “madhumeha” or “honey urine” as the urine would attract ants. Indian physicians Sushruta and Charaka identified Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes as separate conditions for the first time in 400-500 CE.
3. In 1669, an alchemist named Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by boiling down urine and heating the residue to very high temperatures. He was trying to make gold though, and he hoped that the yellow color of urine meant there was gold in it.
4. About 7% of men suffer from paruresis or “shy bladder” syndrome. This anxiety disorder renders the sufferer unable to urinate when other people are in close proximity.
5. Humans usually get the urge to pee when the bladder is just 1/3 full. But in zero gravity, the urge doesn’t kick in till the bladder is almost completely full. When John Glenn orbited the Earth, his only urination was 27 ounces, seven ounces more than the capacity of the average human bladder.
6 Singapore Elevators
It’s illegal to pee in an elevator in Singapore, and some elevators have a urine detection device which detects urine odors, sets off an alarm, and closes the elevator doors until the police arrive.
7. In their “coming of age” ritual, aboriginals in Australia cut a “birth control” hole in the base of the boy’s penis and insert into it a splinter to keep it from closing. Urine and semen come out of the hole unless this sub-incision is plugged with a finger.
8. “Pee paint” is a special kind of paint that repels pee back on the person peeing. Cities use it in an attempt to reduce public urination on walls.
9. The urine from a person who is suffering from diabetes can be made into whiskey because it has high sugar content.
10. Most German men sit while they pee and are taught that standing to pee is unhygienic.
11 Penicillin
In the 1930s, penicillin was so precious that it was re-extracted from the urine of patients who took penicillin to conserve every last bit of it.
12. A male lobster’s bladder is in its heads, and when male lobsters fight, they squirt each other in the face with urine.
13. Aztecs took two showers every day and used flowers as soap and cleaned their mouth with them as well. The Spaniards at that time avoided water because it was thought water on your skin made you more susceptible to the plague and they used urine to clean their mouths and teeth.
14. In 1984, a giant pee-icicle formed on the outside of the space shuttle Discovery. Astronauts had to break it off using a robotic arm and shut down the toilet for the remainder of the mission.
15. Ancient Egyptians used the urine from a pregnant woman to germinate seeds to determine the sex of the child. If barley sprouted first, then it was to be a boy. If wheat sprouted first, then it was to be a girl.
16 Redheads
The urine of ginger boys was prized in medieval Europe for making stained glass.
17. During WW1 Canadian soldiers used urine-soaked clothes as primitive respirators against chemical attacks. The ammonia in urine would react with the chlorine, neutralizing it, and then the water would dissolve the chlorine, allowing soldiers to breathe through the gas.
18. There is a medical disorder in infants called “Maple Syrup Urine Disease,” where the child’s urine smells like maple syrup or burnt sugar and it can be fatal.
19. In the 1950s, physicians performed accurate pregnancy tests by injecting urine from the supposedly pregnant women into a frog. If the frog produced eggs within 24 hours, the test was positive.
20. Asparagus was once included in the emergency ration kits given to American pilots because it made their urine attractive to fish, making them easier to catch.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Mötley Brüe
In 1997, Mötley Crüe released a soda called “Mötley Brüe”, which promised to turn urine blue.
22. Russian cosmonauts have the tradition of urinating on the right rear wheel of the transfer bus before liftoff. Female cosmonauts are excused, but some dash a cup of their own urine in solidarity.
23. There is a traditional dish from Dongyang, China, which is still made today, called Virgin Boy Eggs. Eggs are boiled, soaked and cured in the urine of kids under the age of 10. When they’re done, the yokes are green. They are about twice the price of normal eggs.
24. NASA created a machine that recycles astronauts’ urine into drinking water and launched it aboard Space Shuttle Endeavor to the International Space Station. The recycled water is pure than the U.S. tap water. The system recycles about 93 percent of the water it receives and produces about 6,000 pounds of potable water each year.
25. The Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands once called in police officers after reports of a strong marijuana smell, only to find out it was caused by the zoo’s maned wolves, whose urine smells like cannabis.