Physicists reveal why these tiny worms stack their poop into towers that seem to defy gravity

Most animals leave behind waste that quickly disappears into the landscape. But along Europe's sandy tidal flats, one marine worm has adopted a remarkably different approach. Instead of scattering its droppings across the beach, it carefully stacks them into tall, coiled towers that seem to defy gravity. These delicate spirals have fascinated naturalists since the time of Charles Darwin, who described similar worm castings more than a century ago. Yet scientists never fully understood how such fragile-looking structures remained standing. Now, physicists have solved the mystery.