A splendidly horrible press release touts a nematode worm model for teenaged fickleness.
A splendidly horrible press release touts a nematode worm model for teenaged fickleness.
Worms and people respond to the smell of the chemical diacetyl, known to humans as “buttered popcorn smell,” which is present in a number of foods, including ones in the C. elegans diet. In fact, the worms have a pair of neurons called AWA dedicated to sensing it. To observe behavioral variation between adult and adolescent worms, the Salk team placed the animals in the center of a dish with a drop of diacetyl on one side, and a neutral odor on the other. Then, in a series of trials over several days, they characterized the paths the worms took.
What the scientists saw surprised them: Adolescent worms meandered and took their time getting to the diacetyl, if they got there at all; adult worms made a beeline for it.
I hate C. elegans, having spent far too many years trying to teach this microscopic nematode how to do tricks. Press releases like this stretch the bounds of credibility for an organism that is already overhyped and overexposed --- and is a lousy model for complex behavior.
http://www.salk.edu/news-release/worms-teenage-ambivalence/
Worms and people respond to the smell of the chemical diacetyl, known to humans as “buttered popcorn smell,” which is present in a number of foods, including ones in the C. elegans diet. In fact, the worms have a pair of neurons called AWA dedicated to sensing it. To observe behavioral variation between adult and adolescent worms, the Salk team placed the animals in the center of a dish with a drop of diacetyl on one side, and a neutral odor on the other. Then, in a series of trials over several days, they characterized the paths the worms took.
What the scientists saw surprised them: Adolescent worms meandered and took their time getting to the diacetyl, if they got there at all; adult worms made a beeline for it.
I hate C. elegans, having spent far too many years trying to teach this microscopic nematode how to do tricks. Press releases like this stretch the bounds of credibility for an organism that is already overhyped and overexposed --- and is a lousy model for complex behavior.
http://www.salk.edu/news-release/worms-teenage-ambivalence/
What an elegans model for teenage angst!
ReplyDelete