I couldn’t read this without thinking of the Simpsons episode where Homer goes to space.

Eight colonies of common ants were flown up to the ISS by Nasa in 2014 in order that researchers might study the effects of microgravity on their behaviour and movements. A study published this week in Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution details the results of these experiments.

The researchers say that despite struggling, the ants demonstrated an “impressive ability” to walk on surfaces aboard the ISS. More remarkable, however, was their ability to regain contact with the surface when they started to tumble about in the air. “Sometimes an ant attached itself to another ant to climb back down to the surface. Once back at the surface an ant appeared to hold on to it by flattening its body toward the surface,” the study reads.

via Ants in space prove adept at battling microgravity (Wired UK).