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I have this story where this dude turns himself into a mutant by saturating himself(drinking, cooking with, bathing in, inhaling, and injecting it) in this stuff he made with energy drinks, protein powders, vitamins, veggies, and more(and irradiating himself as well). I imagined and want it to be liquid.

But see...he has no access to a blender as he is shrunk down to around an inch in a building. There is a cockroach civ in there with him but they are hostile and are have around ww2 level tech, so no blenders yet, I think.

So how could someone make a mutant smoothie without a blender?

As this story is already not scientifically sound, please ignore the ramifications of the Square-Cube Law when answering this.

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    $\begingroup$ Modern electric blenders were invented in the 1930s. Americans already drank smoothies by 1940. Before the invention of the powered blender, people used hand-held whisks, which work just as well but require far more time and far more work. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jun 3, 2023 at 21:25
  • $\begingroup$ I see. I could have him try to scavenge/steal a roachmade blender, but I think it might be hard to do so without powers. @AlexP $\endgroup$
    – Conan Highwoods
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 1:10
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    $\begingroup$ Continuing @AlexP's line of thought, it's worth considering that pigment ground for paint was likely to include particles of around 1 um and anything larger could be separated by filtration or settlement. You'd be better off worrying about whether your character could make a hypodermic needle fine enough to not damage the injection site beyond healing. $\endgroup$
    – Mark Morgan Lloyd
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 11:40
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    $\begingroup$ Circle of Iron (1978). Start it at 35m. tubitv.com/movies/543991/circle-of-iron - apparently if you sit in a vat of oil for 10y your legs turn into seaweed. $\endgroup$
    – Mazura
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 20:44

4 Answers 4

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Use a knife and a mortar and a pestle or a rolling pin.

The classic ancient way of doing it was to dice up whatever finely with a knife and then use a mortar and a pestle, basically a rock and another rock with a grove in it, to grind it up finely.

You can also use a rolling pin, basically any cylindrical object, to crush things.

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    $\begingroup$ A large knife can also crush things in a pinch. $\endgroup$
    – AmiralPatate
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 14:07
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Fine Filtration


Never inject anything intravenously that comes out of a blender, a mortar and pestle or a sieve and press. That will kill your hero before he can ever mutantise. Basically, the globs will clog the capillaries in his lungs and he'll die of a pulmonary embolism. This is not good. At least not for your dude. The cockroaches on the other hand will have a feast!


Nope, your dude will have to take the sludge that comes out of the mortar & pestle, blender and sieve and he will have to filter it. Several times. Check your local college or high school chem lab for some grade 2 qualitative filter paper. This stuff has a pore size of 8 μm, which is about the same size as a red blood cell's diameter. Whatever filters through that is okay for injection, provided he doesn't die of sepsis before he mutantises!

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Sieve and press. That is all it takes.

(Done it myself.)

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Frame challenge

If he has shrunk down to an inch, he will be dead anyway. Human red blood cells can't be shrunk and still fix oxygen. Full size blood cells would block his tiny blood vessels. Even the best blender and finest human-sized filters could not produce a liquid that wouldn't kill him.

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    $\begingroup$ But it is an acceptable trope in both literature and film. Lots of imaginary things work in fiction, like warp drives, breathing on Mars, and world peace. $\endgroup$
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 1:11
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    $\begingroup$ @IconDaemon That it is, but the question is tagged science-based. $\endgroup$
    – João Mendes
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ I belive this falls under the OP comment of: 'As this story is already not scientifically sound'. $\endgroup$
    – MikeF
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 19:49

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