Weird science - the ‘why’ behind the ‘wow’

The Independent had a nice little article on the reasoning behind some recent experiments. If you’ve been wondering why scientists have been studying kangaroo farts, trying to make Teflon frogs, creating glow-in-the-dark cats or designing robotic snot, this is the place for you. Snip:

Why give worms antidepressants?
…In fact, it was not intended to treat them for depression at all. Michael Petrascheck and his team wanted to find out how they could make Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworms) live longer. Measuring only one millimetre long, the worms have an average lifespan of three weeks.
So has Petrascheck begun to unearth the elixir of youth? “It’s a stretch to conclude that if worms live longer humans will, too,” he says, “but we hope this research will tell us more about age-related diseases. Could these drugs also alleviate age-related diseases? And, if so, how does it work?”

Link.

Add comment January 7th, 2008