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Buoyancy and Stability for Submerged and Floating Bodies01:11

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In fluid mechanics, buoyancy and stability are key concepts for understanding the behavior of submerged and floating bodies. When a stationary body is fully or partially submerged in a fluid, the fluid exerts a force on the body known as the buoyant force. This force acts vertically upward through a point called the center of buoyancy, which is the center of the displaced fluid volume. According to Archimedes' principle, the magnitude of the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the fluid...
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When an object is placed in a fluid, it either floats or sinks. All objects in a fluid experience a buoyant force. For example, a metal ball sinks, while a rubber ball floats. Similarly, a submarine can sink and float by adjusting its buoyancy.  The concept of buoyancy raises several interesting questions. For instance, where does this buoyant force come from? How much buoyant force is required to make an object sink or float? Do objects that sink get any support at all from the...
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When a lump of clay is dropped into water, it sinks. But if the same lump of clay is molded into the shape of a boat, it starts to float. Because of its shape, the clay boat displaces more water than the lump and experiences a greater buoyant force, even though its mass is the same. The same holds true for steel ships. The average density of an object majorly determines if the object will float. If an object's average density is less than that of the surrounding fluid, it will float. The...
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Archimedes' Principle01:13

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Archimedes' principle states that an upward buoyant force exerted on a body that is immersed partially or entirely in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by it. To understand how much buoyant force is needed to make an object float, let us think about what happens when a submerged object is removed from a fluid. If the object were not in the fluid, the space occupied by the object would be filled by the fluid having a weight wfl. This weight is supported by the...
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When an object is dropped, it accelerates toward the center of the Earth. If the net external force on the object is its weight, it is said to be in free fall; that is, the only force acting on the object is gravity. Galileo was instrumental in showing that, in the absence of air resistance, all objects fall with the same acceleration g. However, when objects on the Earth fall downward, they are never truly in free fall, because there is always some upward resistance force from the air acting...
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Archimedes' principle is fundamental in analyzing the buoyant force and stability of floating bodies. In this example, a wooden block with a rectangular section floats in seawater. Based on the block's dimensions, its specific gravity and the specific weight of seawater are used to find the volume of water displaced and the center of buoyancy.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 14, 2026

Reduced-gravity Environment Hardware Demonstrations of a Prototype Miniaturized Flow Cytometer and Companion Microfluidic Mixing Technology
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Neutral Buoyancy as a Simple Approach to Simulated Microgravity.

Ho Yong Kim1, Sungwook Kang2, Se Heang Oh3,4

  • 1Department of Nanobiomedical Science, Dankook University, Cheonan, 31116, Republic of Korea.

Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
|January 13, 2026
PubMed
Summary

A new neutral buoyancy system simulates microgravity for cell research. This low-cost method maintains human mesenchymal stem cell stemness and influences differentiation, offering an accessible platform for space biology studies.

Keywords:
DifferentiationMicrogravityNeutral buoyancy

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Area of Science:

  • Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
  • Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research
  • Space Biology and Astrobiology

Background:

  • Microgravity research is crucial for understanding biological phenomena but faces limitations in cost, accessibility, and accurate simulation.
  • Existing ground-based simulators often introduce artifacts like shear stress and vibration, hindering realistic microgravity replication.
  • A need exists for simple, low-cost, and reproducible simulated microgravity systems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a simple, low-cost, and reproducible simulated microgravity system using neutral buoyancy.
  • To assess the stability of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (hBMSC) spheroids in the simulated environment.
  • To investigate the effects of neutral buoyancy-simulated microgravity on hBMSC stemness and trilineage differentiation.

Main Methods:

  • Created a neutral buoyancy medium (NBM) by mixing cell culture medium with density gradient media (Ficoll-Paque™, Percoll™, Optiprep™).
  • Evaluated the buoyancy stability of hBMSC spheroids experimentally and through computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
  • Compared the effects of the 3D-simulated microgravity (3D-sim-μg) on hBMSC stemness and differentiation against normal gravity controls.

Main Results:

  • An Optiprep-based NBM (20/80 v/v) provided stable suspension for hBMSC spheroids for up to 14 days.
  • CFD analysis confirmed near-zero static pressure, validating the microgravity-like environment.
  • hBMSC spheroids in 3D-sim-μg exhibited enhanced pluripotency marker expression, suppressed osteogenic differentiation, and increased adipogenic and chondrogenic differentiation compared to normal gravity.

Conclusions:

  • The neutral buoyancy-based system effectively simulates microgravity-induced cellular behaviors, including stemness maintenance and lineage-specific differentiation.
  • This approach offers a simple, accessible, and reproducible platform for diverse microgravity research.
  • The findings support the utility of this system for studying cellular responses in simulated space environments.