Untangling the Mystery of Worm Balls: Mathematicians Find the Solution.

MIT mathematicians and biophysicists at Georgia Tech have discovered how California blackworms can twist and curl around each other by the thousands, forming tightly wound balls and then untangling just as quickly. The team has now pinned down the mechanism by which the worms tangle up and quickly unwind, which could inspire designs for fast, reversible, and self-assembling materials and fibers. The study could also lead to the development of smart robots that could change their grasp by tangling and untangling.