Physics can get real strange on the microscopic level . For tiny creatures living on this scale , these eccentricities are what allow them to thrive despite their size—including a worm that researchers dub as one of the “smallest, best jumpers in the world.”

For a recent paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers investigated the odd physics of a “worm-charging mechanism,” which enables S. carpocapsae , a parasitic roundworm, to jump onto aerial prey using static electricity.

When the tiny worm, or nematode, senses an insect flying above, it curls into a loop and leaps as high as 25 times its body length, the “equivalent of a human being jumping higher than a 10-story building,” according to the researchers. During the leap, they can rotate up to 1,000

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