The poop emoji has been scientifically accurate all along, physicists find

Physicists reported that the familiar soft-serve shape of the 💩 emoji closely matches how feces naturally coil under gravity. Their work connects that shape to elastic rope-coiling theory and says the result depends on gravity, material stiffness, and extrusion direction.

Reading notes

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• The study in Nature Communications links the emoji’s tapered mound to the way falling material forms shrinking coils as each new loop lands lower than the last.
• The researchers traced the idea to lugworm castings observed on a beach in France, which form straight-sided towers because they are pushed upward from underground burrows.
• In laboratory tests with pea dough and pasta, the team found that feces, worm castings, and soft extruded foods follow the same coiling behavior.
• The research also addresses Darwin’s 1881 observations of earthworm castings, which he documented but could not explain.
• The authors suggested a second poop emoji based on the cylindrical shape made by lugworms and planned to propose it to the Unicode Consortium.