Golf

I'm not Tiger Woods. And, despite your Sunday red shirt and supermodel wife, you're not either. So our likelihood of making single-degree adjustments to an already biomechanically unsightly swing in hopes of consciously creating a slight fade or draw is unlikely. The best we mere mortals should hope for is the ability to hit a ball straight, no matter how ugly the swing, 18 consecutive times off the tee. And now, thanks to an adjustable driver from Nike, technology will take care of the rest.

Last week, we saw the environmentally friendly battery in which a genetically engineered virus is used to produce the electrodes. To adjust the process as they went along, the scientist simply tweaked the DNA of the virus.

Elsewhere, researchers have come up with a battery that is powered by a drop of blood.

Also in today's links: a musician gets wound up over Google, golfers try to relax, and more.

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.

Apparently those high tech golf balls really are all the same. Or at least two of them according to a U.S. District court that ordered Titleist this month to stop selling its Pro V1 golf ball by 2009. The court claimed the balls were in violation of a Callaway Golf patent but has yet to rule on damages. And just how much cash could a measly golf ball have generated? According to the suit – more than $1 billion.

Any space in your golf bag next to the nine-iron? Here are two clubs that can offer a truly unique dynamic to your next 18 holes -- and they neatly complement each other! Introducing the Kooler Klub and the UroClub. Fill up your frosty beverage from one, and, a few holes later, relieve yourself into the other. We couldn't make this stuff up.

When playing golf in outer space, it's important to keep in mind Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation:

F = Gm₁m₂ / r²

This equation describes the force of gravity between any two masses separated by a distance r between their centers. G is a constant of nature that we call the universal gravitational constant.

See it in action in this week's online game, Gravitee.

Get ready to add a few more golf clubs to the bag – sort of. Callaway Golf launched its new I-MIX drivers this month which allows enterprising duffers everywhere to swap out specific heads and shafts according to course or weather conditions, or just to impress their cronies. The heads are attached to the shaft using a custom torque wrench that provides an audible click and a visual indicator suggesting when it’s safe to let the big dog bite.

With each 18 holes purchased, man has a decision to make. It’s a reflection of one's beliefs on purity versus convenience. It’s an expression of one's willingness to endure for the sense of accomplishment. It’s an opportunity to scoff at pragmatism in favor of tradition. And it comes down to a single question: Cart or no cart?