The Score

Smell Ya Later, Sweaty Sports Gear

A new sanitizing dryer makes bacteria-laden athletic equipment a thing of the past

Any mom assigned to carpool duty for youth sports practice has an appreciation for the pungent power of damp athletic gear. While the shirts and shorts get immediately cleaned in the washing machine, other equipment like bags, helmets, gloves, shoes are normally relegated to the garage whey they continue to stink and collect potentially dangerous bacteria. But fear not, sensitive noses, a fancy dryer from Shock Doctor promises to freshen the most foul.

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Double or Nothing?

Confident a co-worker has a tendency to retain water? Bet against him on the Tanita Innerscan BC-350’s body water line (and then make sure he chugs his beverage at lunch)

Weight loss is a money making industry. And where money can be made, gambling will occur. So from pre-wedding bets to company-wide pools, people are putting the forks down to avoid forking over cash. As belly-betting becomes the latest fad in the health care industry, its critical to ensure winners emerge fairly and accurately. The results of March Madness pools aren’t calculated with a slide rule; nor should your weight be measured using the counterweight balance from 1974 in your company’s gym.

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Recent Championship Takes the Tech Out of Bowling (and Yes, There is Tech in Bowling)

What happens when current day hot-shots play their games without the accoutrements? One high-stakes bowling competition set out to find out

Few things in sports have changed less than bowling shoes. From the color schemes to the odor spray, they’re as constant as stale bowling alley hot dogs and, um, ‘uniquely’ qualified bar staff. But, what about the balls?

While ten pounds has remained ten pounds, little else has been maintained. The impact of technology has received plenty of coverage with regard to golf, swimming and tennis, but achieving a perfect game in bowling over the past 30 years has also become less of an art and more of a science. In homage to the good old days, the Professional Bowling Association (PBA), hosted the first ever Geico Plastic Ball Championship, where competitors rolled with identical decades-old balls. We offer a brief review for those heading to the lanes next weekend and hoping to impress a date.

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Speeding Past the Competition

A new sensor from BERU brings professional car-racing teams up to speed on tire conditions like no sensor has before

Checking your tire pressure might save you a few cents on gas, but the technology behind rubber meeting road is a bit more critical in F1 racing than in commuter frugality. Professional teams have long collected data on tire pressure and air temperature through sensors on a tire’s valve stem during a race. But these sensors are susceptible to “heat soak” from the rim, and brakes and were unable to measure the critical temperature of the actual tire carcass.

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Super Undergarments

A new series of Adidas sportswear uses polymer springs to give athletes an extra edge

From the US PopSci team. In 2007, American basketball star Dwight Howard donned a Superman cape before leaping to victory in the slam dunk competition. In an attempt to defend his title this weekend (he came in second), Howard topped his own theatrics by entering a phone booth for his annual costume change. The basketball player-cum-superhero returned to the court to dunk, not in a regulation 10-foot basket, but in a 12-foot-high hoop.

While it's natural to attribute such supernatural feats to Howard's freakish physical stature -- or perhaps to the cape around his neck -- it was actually the skintight clothing beneath the cape that produced the boldest and most easily quantifiable performance enhancement. An undergarment described as, not clothing, but equipment, the Adidas Techfit Powerweb contains carefully placed strips of thermoplastic urethane that stores energy like a spring, and lets athletes release it on their villain of choice.

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How a Mouthguard Can Change a Game

An ultra high-tech tooth protector is claiming nearly unbelievable, physical improvement in athletic performance

From the US PopSci team

You’ve likely seen athletes chewing on them, spitting them out or sticking them in their helmet. But a high tech version of what seems part mouth fetish and part tooth protector has performance enhancing capability according to data from Pure Power Mouthguard. Research conducted at Rutgers University, USA, (funded by PPM) claims some impressive, nearly unbelievable, physical improvement from just wearing the guard. Wait till WADA gets a hold of this one.

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Who's Counting?

A gadget to perfect your at-home workouts

From the US PopSci team

What makes a perfect push-up? Depends on how many people are watching. But at least one company thinks they have the answer, and named their company accordingly. The Perfect Pushup has been selling its namesake device for several years: two rotating hand grips that allow a more biomechanically natural exercise. The only problem was that founder Alden Mills (a former US Navy SEAL) didn't count on people like us.

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Is Pot a Performance Enhancer?

The unfair science behind the M(J) Phelps suspension

We didn’t want to write about it. Seriously, we didn’t. Sure, Michael Phelps has digital technology, the 24-hour news cycle and precision blown glass to blame for his plight but we’re better than that.* But when US Swimming went and suspended Phelps for two months for, ultimately, acting his age, we felt compelled to write something. The 'Science' part of Popular Science restricts us from condemning the insanity of the punishment (note, however, they did nothing following his 2003 DUI).

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The Heat is on at the Tennis

Extreme heat causes issues at the 2009 Australian Open

Not for the first time the Australian Open tennis has been marred by extreme heat. The previous two days have seen temperatures close to 40 degrees while today is heading for a top of 41 degrees. The heat wave has caused havoc amongst players. Being that the on-court conditions are a lot hotter as the court surface soaks up the heat, players may feel temperatures upwards of 50 degrees.

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Trying Out Wearable Hydration

Brett Zarda does the Camelbak

What do you buy for an avid cyclist that's already spent a fortune on the latest weightless bike, wireless cycling speaker, and a lifetime supply of yellow Livestrong bracelets? How about a shirt full of water?

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Sport Briefs

New studies on fitness, fatness, baldness, and more

  • Other than looking good, is there any real benefit to the trend of skin-tight workout clothes? According to research conducted at Charles Sturt University in Australia, not so much.
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A Longer Gondola

From one mountain to another, on a couple of cables

There's gondolas, and then there's the new Whistler Blackcomb resort's Peak 2 Peak gondola. The modern marvel opened December 12, creating the world's longest unsupported span, which stretches 1.88 miles across Fitzsimmons Creek at a measly 1,427 feet above sea level. The full 2.73-mile gondola trip joins two mountains, providing more than 8,000 acres of ski-able terrain to the most enthusiastic bums.

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A Better Fit

Coming to a store near you: high-tech, high-speed scanning and a new degree of comfort underfoot

If the shoe fits, wear it. But making sure your shoe fits just got a bit more technical. Custom insoles have long been ordered and worn by elite athletes hoping to cure an injury, or avoid one. eSoles now plans to bring that customization the masses with an impressive piece of in-store ingenuity. In just seconds, the eSole self-service kiosk will print out a detailed analysis of your foot, allowing the retailer to offer two choices of custom orthotic.

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What Counts as Drug Use in Sports?

Is eye-surgery like steroids? Should performance-enhancers be permitted? Let your voice be heard

Every issue has two sides and at ProCon.org they offer the pros and cons to each. From politics to prostitution to the death penalty, the non-partisan nonprofit organization has invited experts to offer their unbiased, differing, opinions on controversial issues since 2004. The latest topic on the forum? Drug use in sports.

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Is Golf a Sport?

Looking to calories for the answer

It's an age-old question debated in pro shops and pubs across America: is golf a sport? Neil Wolkodoff, director of the Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver, thinks it is, and he has some data to back up his claim. Wokodoff took eight better-than-average golfers and tracked their heart rate, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and how far they were walking through a few rounds.

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