Liquid Humans: Why Don't We Slosh?

R

Richard Townsend

Registered Senior Member
If we're ninety-nine percent water, why aren't we more like liquid than solid - why do proteins fold so stubbornly into rigidity, instead of sloshing about?
 
Richard Townsend said:
If we're ninety-nine percent water, why aren't we more like liquid than solid - why do proteins fold so stubbornly into rigidity, instead of sloshing about?
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Нужно спросить у кошек. Любой, у кого есть кошка, знает, что коты - это жидкость, способная просочиться куда угодно.
 
Richard Townsend said:
If we're ninety-nine percent water, why aren't we more like liquid than solid - why do proteins fold so stubbornly into rigidity, instead of sloshing about?
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We aren't. Only 70%. The rigidity comes from bones, to which muscles and organs are attached by organic polymers.
 
exchemist said:
We aren't. Only 70%. The rigidity comes from bones, to which muscles and organs are attached by organic polymers.
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Ah, fair. Bones give shape, but they're only about fifteen percent. The rest - cells, blood, gel - all sloshing around inside a stretchy skin. So actually, without the skeleton, you'd be more pudding than person. Even then... lie down long enough, gravity still wins. You're a bag of water with delusions of solidity.
 
Richard Townsend said:
Ah, fair. Bones give shape, but they're only about fifteen percent. The rest - cells, blood, gel - all sloshing around inside a stretchy skin. So actually, without the skeleton, you'd be more pudding than person. Even then... lie down long enough, gravity still wins. You're a bag of water with delusions of solidity.
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Our flesh is like a lot of tiny polythene bags of water, inflated enough to stretch them a bit. Like bubblewrap, which is 95% air, can feel more or less solid.
 
exchemist said:
Our flesh is like a lot of tiny polythene bags of water, inflated enough to stretch them a bit. Like bubblewrap, which is 95% air, can feel more or less solid.
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Exactly. That’s why if you cut a finger, it bleeds - water. Pinch the skin - water. Poke the eye - water. The whole body’s just a soggy sack pretending to be tough. We creak when we move. We just haven’t realized it yet.
 
Connective tissue is what holds everything in place.

We are less like a bottle of water than like a sponge. Sponges don't slosh. They hold water but they keep their shape.
 
Richard Townsend said:
Exactly. That’s why if you cut a finger, it bleeds - water. Pinch the skin - water. Poke the eye - water. The whole body’s just a soggy sack pretending to be tough. We creak when we move. We just haven’t realized it yet.
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Creaking is due to joints, not water content.

And I think we are all aware of the blood in our bodies and the other fluids we process and produce.
 
Changeling said:
The human body. Like the inside of a waveless waterbed mattress. Baffles prevent slosh.
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Haha, I see what you mean, purely in terms of the high liquid content of the body versus its ability to maintain its shape. It reminds me of a GCSE physics question my son had, which he had to answer on the basis that, for the purposes of the question at least, "a dog is a solid." :)
 
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Watermelons are almost entirely water too, but they do not slosh for the same pretty obvious reason. Neither are just big homogenous bags of water.
 
Cells are filled with cytoplasm, which is gel-like rather than liquid. As well as cell junctions that provide adhesion between cells the membranes around each limit how much cells can change shape (slosh baffles?) they have cytoskeletons - fibres and microtubules that provide tensile resistance to shape change (as well as perform other functions).

Cytoskeletons -


(Sorry, I'm not sure how to stop it continuing to the next video)
 
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Richard Townsend said:
If we're ninety-nine percent water, why aren't we more like liquid than solid - why do proteins fold so stubbornly into rigidity, instead of sloshing about?
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We are about 70% water.

Cucumbers are 96% water. Start your confusion there. Or better yet, jell-o - that's 95% water and you can make it as solid as you want.
 
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