How to make a bone "rubbery"

How can you make a hard bone as elastic as rubber?

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • boiled chick­en bone;
  • ta­ble vine­gar;
  • glass;
  • bowl of wa­ter;
  • gloves.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Im­merse a boiled chick­en bone in some vine­gar, close the con­tain­er, and leave it for a week. Then wash it and ob­serve how the bone has soft­ened!

Process de­scrip­tion

Bone is a rigid tis­sue that per­forms mus­cu­loskele­tal, pro­tec­tive, and hematopoi­et­ic func­tions. Its por­ous struc­ture makes it light­weight, but also quite strong! The largest bone in the hu­man body is the fe­mur, and the small­est is the stir­rup in the mid­dle ear. Bone is het­ero­ge­neous and con­sists of in­or­gan­ic sub­stances in an or­gan­ic ma­trix (os­sein). In adults, the in­or­gan­ic com­po­nent is more prom­i­nent, and is com­prised of var­i­ous salts (in par­tic­u­lar, cal­ci­um salts, main­ly hy­drox­ya­p­atite), while the or­gan­ic part is main­ly col­la­gen pro­tein. If a bone is left in any acid, such as acetic acid, the min­er­al com­po­nents will dis­solve and the flex­i­ble col­la­gen ma­trix will re­main!

Cool med­i­cal ex­per­i­ments will ap­pear in the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion very soon! Stay tuned for up­dates!

Try it