Lavatory

No country takes toilets quite so seriously as Japan. The master of the modern convenience is the Panasonic Corporation; a new flush has been invented which does away with the need for a tank and saves dramatically on water.

Machine with heated seats, built-in bidet and a dynamic range of flushing options are almost ubiquitous.

One even sends a tiny electrical charge through the user's buttocks to check their body-fat ratio; it will take a guess at the gender and lifted up the seat as well. The control panel beside the seat and gentle light classical music began to play;a loo that glowed in the dark and another that had built-in loudspeakers with sound effect that provided the impression one was seated upon a white plastic throne surrounded by songbirds in a springtime meadow.

Space

According to NASA,this Urine Processor Assembly managed to get through three rigorous testing sessions, and apparently was good enough for officials to leave it in orbit; but no one takes the first sip - $154 million water recycling system which is designed to convert sweat, moisture and urine into digestible fluid .

Space Debris U.S. scientists are looking for a way to clear the clutter in space, which some say is becoming troublesome on the heavenly highways. So far, ideas have fallen into two buckets -- limiting new debris and eliminating existing debris. The space junk problem is increasing, in part because of collisions between materials in space, rocket stage failures and activities such as anti-satellite testing. "Even though recent efforts have been successful in minimizing the amount of new debris, the number of debris pieces continues to increase, if space-faring nations continue to ignore this growing space access challenge, we will reach a gridlock situation in which launching satellites is too risky.” According to space.com .

Ocean

Ocean waters are growing more acidic faster than previously thought and pose a threat to sea life. In addition, the increase acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. "Of the variables the study examined that are linked to changes in ocean acidity, only atmospheric carbon dioxide exhibited a corresponding steady change," researchers from the University of Chicago said.

The increasingly acidic water has begun causing harm to some sea animals and could reduce the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide. The University scientists' study is based on 24,519 measurements of ocean pH taken during an eight-year period at Tatoosh Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington.

"The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies. This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought, at least in some areas of the ocean."