The motions of undulating animals and the states of quantum objects can be described using strikingly similar equations.

Alexander Cohen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have found an equation that describes the motion of worms, snakes, centipedes and undulating snake-like robots.

They began by looking at previously recorded laboratory footage of Caenorhabditis elegans worms, Western shovelnose snakes (Chionactis occipitalis), brown centipedes (Lithobius forficatus) and bio-inspired mechanical snake robots in motion. They identified specific movement patterns these undulating creatures perform, and …