ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Duration of urination does not change with body size.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanics of dust bathing in birds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Noninvasive monitoring of lower urinary tract dysfunction in rats with bladder outlet obstruction using uroflowmetry and ultrasonography.International urology and nephrology · 2026Article
- Morphological and Performance Assessment of Commercial Menstrual and Incontinence Absorbent Hygiene Products.Polymers · 2026Article
- An open-source neurodynamic model of the lower urinary tract.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Fluid Ejections in Nature.Annual review of chemical and biomolecular engineering · 2024Review
- Unifying fluidic excretion across life from cicadas to elephants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Fluid ejections in nature.ArXiv · 2024Article
- Droplet superpropulsion in an energetically constrained insect.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Sources, Selection, and Microenvironmental Preconditioning of Cells for Urethral Tissue Engineering.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Mathematical modeling of the lower urinary tract: A review.Neurourology and urodynamics · 2022Review
- Droplets generated from toilets during urination as a possible vehicle of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2021Article
- Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection: A Mystery in Search of Better Model Systems.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Review
- Sexual dimorphism of detrusor function demonstrated by urodynamic studies in rhesus macaques.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta.Nature biomedical engineering · 2020Article
- Article
- Oscillatory surface rheotaxis of swimming E. coli bacteria.Nature communications · 2019Article
- High-speed microjets issue from bursting oil gland reservoirs of citrus fruit.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Characterization of mouse neuro-urological dynamics in a novel decerebrate arterially perfused mouse (DAPM) preparation.Neurourology and urodynamics · 2018Article
- A urine-dependent human urothelial organoid offers a potential alternative to rodent models of infection.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- A simple fluid dynamic model of renal pelvis pressures during ureteroscopic kidney stone treatment.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many urological studies rely on models of animals, such as rats and pigs, but their relation to the human urinary system is poorly understood. Here, we elucidate the hydrodynamics of urination across five orders of magnitude in body mass. Using high-speed videography and flow-rate measurement obtained at Zoo Atlanta, we discover that all mammals above 3 kg in weight empty their bladders over nearly constant duration of 21 ± 13 s. This feat is possible, because larger animals have longer urethras and thus, higher gravitational force and higher flow speed. Smaller mammals are challenged during urination by high viscous and capillary forces that limit their urine to single drops. Our findings reveal that the urethra is a flow-enhancing device, enabling the urinary system to be scaled up by a factor of 3,600 in volume without compromising its function. This study may help to diagnose urinary problems in animals as well as inspire the design of scalable hydrodynamic systems based on those in nature.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.