Newswise — When centimeter-long aquatic worms, such as T. tubifex or Lumbriculus variegatus, are placed in a Petri dish filled with sub-millimeter sized sand particles, something surprising happens. Over time, the worms begin to spontaneously clean up their surroundings. They sweep particles into compact clusters, gradually reshaping and organizing their environment.

In a study recently published in Physical Review X, a team of researchers show that this remarkable sweeping behavior does not require a brain, or any kind of complex interaction between the worms and the particles. Instead, it emerges from the natural undulating motion and flexibility that the worms possess.

The study was co-led by Saad Bhamla, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Antoine Deblais of the University of Amsterdam.

Deblais said: “It is fascinating to see how living worms can organize their surroundings just by moving.” Bhamla added: “Their activity and flexibility alone are enough to collect particles and reshape their environment.”

By building simple robotic and computer models that mimic the living worms, the researchers discoverewormsd that only these two ingredients – activity and flexibility – are sufficient to reproduce the sweeping and collecting effects. The result is a self-organized, dynamic form of environmental restructuring driven purely by motion and shape.