Do you know this, yes ‘this’ is the reason because of which people have got at least 4 Nobel prize!
It was also named because it is very ‘Elegant!’
Now Before you run your imaginations wild let you pop your enthusiasm bubble (I hate it when someone does that though!) and inform you that ‘it’ is a worm!
Now, this is no ordinary worm!
It is so popular among Nobel Laureates that they even shout out its name in their Nobel acceptance speech! That is an accolade few ‘humans’ get!
The worm is called Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1 millimetre nematode that’s been extensively studied as a model organism!
One of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun, lauded the species with its highest honour so far, recognizing it as “badass” (now it is not confirmed whether a ‘worm’ can have an ‘ass’ though!)
The one-millimeter nematode has helped scientists understand how healthy cells are instructed to kill themselves and how the process goes awry in AIDS, strokes and degenerative diseases. (That work was the subject of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine!)
Self-proclaimed “worm people” were recognized by the Nobel committee in 2006 for discovering gene silencing, which became the basis for an entirely new class of drugs. Two years later, the chemistry prize went to scientists who used nematodes to help invent cellular “lanterns” that allowed biologists to see the inner workings of a cell!
For each prize, a laureate made sure to thank the worm for its contributions, though perhaps the most famous nod came from Sydney Brenner, who won the first “worm Nobel.”
“Without doubt, the fourth winner of the Nobel Prize this year is Caenorhabditis elegans,” he said in his lecture in Stockholm!
Now since the worm is like a saint of sorts, it apparently ‘refused’ any monetary gain was the ‘official’ statement!
Dr. Brenner, often thought of as the father of C. elegans research, is the closest thing there is to a worm celebrity. He is credited with popularizing C. elegans in laboratories worldwide, after spending almost a decade hunting for the perfect research model!
C. elegans is named after the Latin word for “elegant” because of the way it moves in graceful, sinusoidal waves. One of the animal’s virtues is its simplicity, which allows scientists to test hypotheses about fundamental biological concepts in a model that is easy to understand.
The nematodes have just 959 cells — a remarkably manageable number, compared with our trillions of cells — each of which scientists have named and charted from fertilization to death.
The destiny of each cell is easy to map, since the worms become translucent under the light of a microscope and cycle through all developmental stages in about three days.
The nematode was the first animal to have its genome entirely deciphered — in 1998, years before scientists were able to do the same for flies and mice. The worm is also inexpensive, easy to store and entirely self-sufficient when it comes to reproduction; female C. elegans have functional sperm that allow them to inseminate themselves!
Now that is a scary level of women’s rights or not depending on which side you are!
So the next time you have the enthusiasm of getting Noble and getting a Nobel; think ‘elegantly’!
Then again one elegant actress with great mother roles is Saranya Ponvannan!
Now worm yourself to sleep!
Shubh ratri!
ramadocblog 