Some things in life don’t require any reinvention, but according to a team of physicists from Canada’s University of Waterloo, the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply to men’s bathroom facilities. At the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Indianapolis in fall 2022, the team made a splash with a design for a urinal that, well, doesn't. The splashless urinal's shape is inspired by the geometry of a nautilus shell, and prevents droplets from leaving the bowl. Droplets don't stay in a typical urinal because current designs are not optimized to prevent splash. “If we can get a man on the moon, a rover on Mars, and split the atom, then surely we can pee without splashing,” said research assistant Kaveeshan Thurairajah. Researchers discovered that below 30 degrees, there’s no splash. They found that the curve of the nautilus that moves by expelling water from its shell was the perfect shape. That inspired them to invent the “Nauti-loo.” The splashless urinal's shape is inspired by the geometry of a nautilus shell and prevents droplets from leaving the bowl. "Switching to the Nauti-loo, the scientists hope, will make bathrooms a more sanitary place and help save water, chemicals and the effort required to clean,” said Thurairajah.
