Study Confirms Poop Emoji Mirrors Gravity-Driven Coiling, While Lugworms Defy It in U-Shaped Burrows
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Jun 23
Study Confirms Poop Emoji Mirrors Gravity-Driven Coiling, While Lugworms Defy It in U-Shaped Burrows
3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Jun 23
Summary
Nature Communications published Daniel Bonn’s study showing the poop emoji’s pointed mound matches how most feces coil under gravity as each new loop falls a shorter distance.
Lugworms exposed the exception: in U-shaped burrows, they extrude feces upward, creating tower-like piles that let researchers test what Bonn called anti-gravitational coiling.
Pea-dough reconstructions and sample measurements found both downward and upward poop still follow elastic rope-coiling theory, with muscular control and extrusion rate mattering less than expected.
The work helps explain a puzzle noted as far back as Charles Darwin’s 1881 observations of worm castings and argues that some biological forms arise from physics rather than adaptive design.