Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers.

Counting the copies of a specific gene in cells gathered from a urine sample may provide a simple, noninvasive way to detect bladder cancer, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that female mice avoid mating with inbred males by ‘sensing’ the diversity of a protein type in their urine.

A family of proteins commonly found in mouse urine is able to trigger fighting between male mice, a study in the Dec. 6, 2007, issue of Nature has found. The study, which is the first to identify protein pheromones responsible for the aggression response in mice, was funded in part by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers in Finland are reporting successful use of an unlikely fertilizer for farm fields that is inexpensive, abundantly available, and undeniably organic -- human urine.

Our body’s production of urine follows a circadian rhythm. During the day, we experience greater urinary frequency; at night, urine production declines, enabling us to get uninterrupted sleep. The regulation of urine excretion during nighttime hours is influenced by many factors, including hormones, blood flow (hemodynamics), and sleep-related factors.

Researchers at the University of York are using an understanding of the special cells that line the bladder to develop ways of restoring continence to patients with serious bladder conditions, including cancer. The research, highlighted in the quarterly magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) this week, is looking at urothelial cells.