A tiny roundworm known as C. elegans may not have a heart, but it’s a boon to heart researchers. That’s because its pharnyx, or feeding tube, beats rhythmically like a human heart, has similar electrical properties, and is controlled by similar genes.

C. elegans is a non-hazardous, non-infectious, non-pathogenic, non-parasitic organism. It is small, growing to about 1 mm in length, and lives in the soil—especially rotting vegetation—in many parts of the world, where it survives by feeding on microbes such as bacteria.

elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have proven themselves valuable tools for probing processes from embryonic development to neurodegeneration. But can these tiny animals really illuminate the principles of pain? There is no question that C. elegans and Drosophila react to noxious stimuli.

Phototaxis behavior is commonly observed in animals with light-sensing organs. C. elegans, however, is generally believed to lack phototaxis, as this animal lives in darkness (i.e. soil) and does not possess eyes.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen of humans and the most commonly studied pathogen in C. elegans, where it causes a lethal infection of intestinal epithelial cells [17]. In addition, several other bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens can infect the C.

elegans grown in large numbers, can be easily screened for effects of novel drugs on complex processes involved in human disease. C. elegans is particularly useful the study of ageing processes because the organism passes through several distinct phases of life which can be observed physiologically and genetically.

It has long been known that C. elegans is attracted to many volatile compounds that are released by bacteria, including alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters and amines, and can discriminate among mixtures of volatile compounds released by different kinds of bacteria [3–6].

Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans, are tiny worms with tiny brains—their whole bodies are the width of a pencil tip and contain only 302 neurons. Caltech researchers have now discovered how this worm, with such a limited neurological system, can so drastically change its behaviors.

Do worms have brains? Yes, although they are not particularly complex. Each worm’s brain sits next to its other organs, and connects the nerves from the worm’s skin and muscles, controlling how it feels and moves.

The roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, does not sleep in a typical day-night cycle like humans and many other animals. Instead, these worms catch most of their z’s while transitioning from one larval stage to another, during a period called lethargus.

Stronger chemicals or repeated inhaling can cause people to pass out. A user can also die suddenly from using inhalants. When someone uses an inhalant, large amounts of toxic chemicals enter the lungs and pass from the bloodstream into the brain. There they damage and kill brain cells.