I've been thinking of compiling a list of technologies I hate. I need to narrow down the criteria, but top of the list will be the automatic flush toilet. Somewhere in the top ten will be artifical turf in sports. I'm dismayed to see in some regions turf is making a comeback.

FieldTurf is considered the originator of the new surfaces, known as "in-fill" systems. Rubber chips, and sometimes sand, are worked in between the synthetic blades to stand them up and provide extra cushioning.

"The big advantage is they cost less than the old AstroTurf fields, which ran about $1 million each, and they're softer than the old AstroTurf fields," said John Huard, a FieldTurf sales representative based in Naperville.

The only known research comparing high school athletic injuries on grass versus turf was done in 2004 by Michael Meyers of West Texas A&M University and Dr. Bill Barnhill, an Amarillo, Texas, orthopedic surgeon. They found the incidence of football injuries nearly equal on the two surfaces.

A study by Roseanne Naunheim, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found that a frozen grass field was the hardest of all surfaces.

FieldTurf is apparently most favored in the NFL and by the Nebraska Cornhuskers.