Humans also have a hydrophobic protein core — water fearing. This means when water is in a cell, the proteins fold inward, curling up to try to prevent any water from touching them (this process is called the hydrophobic effect). During this time, there are molecules called substrates, which float around the cell and are the main reason enzymes work. Enzymes are a protein. The enzyme needs substrates to create energy and nutrients so the cell can function. While the substrate is floating in the cell, and the proteins are curled up, the substrate tries to attach to the enzyme's active site (a dent formed from the protein folding, perfect for a substrate to lock into). The substrate tries to find the correct protein to enter by bumping into many protein balls — this process is called Brownian motion — until it finds the correct one.
Now, humans can't survive desiccation. They don't have the unique proteins to protect the normal ones like the tardigrade does. Instead, during desiccation, the protein unfolds, exposing its hydrophobic core, which is sticky and attracted to other proteins. This results in the formation of an aggregate (a clump) with the surrounding proteins. I had a question: what if the protein unfolds and then recurls back up? Well, that's very close to impossible, since there are so many proteins that they block that from happening by clumping together. But the process of recurling is called renaturation, and it's close to impossible in this situation — but if it happened, the protein would work again.