#xkcd 3190

[todays-xkcd]

Some people argue that the tension and compression in the human skeleton is technically tensegrity, but it's missing the defining characteristic: making people say 'wtf, how is that thing floating?' when they see it.

Tensegrity [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Cueball stands at the left of the panel, and at the right is a giraffe-like animal whose legs appear to be made of a tensegrity structure, with disconnected segments held together by strings]

[Caption below the panel:] While tensegrity is rare in the animal kingdom, a few species, such as Buckminster's Giraffe, are known to employ it.