Neverending DNA and Immortal Worms

Dr Aziz Aboobaker on his latest breakthrough studying planarians - or immortal worms. Read the paper at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/p...

Test Tube by video journalist Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
More at http://www.test-tube.org.uk/

• Category

  Science & Technology

[DeanGl]

Really? Must you start a religious debate here for no reason at all? lol. I'm glad no religious zealot has read your comment yet. Although I find you and your apparent desire to be noticed rather pathetic.

[Ben Turner]

Turns out planarians are secretly time lords.

[jdrew500]

Have you sliced the worm length wise, and is there a difference in the regeneration?

[Freed Justine]

So, if you don't feed this worm AT ALL, would it die? It would, right? Because it needs materials that it gets from foods to keep replacing old cells and keeping it's DNA intact.

[dedam85]

what if a version of this worm that eats flesh/blood gets in a human body : would the human body be able to destroy this worm fast enough on its own or would it just keep regenerating faster than it would get destroyed? This thing could be a serious weapon if genetically engineered properly

[TheBertjeT]

This guy can explain very well!

[varun kalra]

I would like to take part in the human trials of telomerase vaccination if there are any !

[kristaps jakobsons]

4 human spiecies tshis dna code conception shud be made together vith organic materials in a food sistem.and in the fizikal lok koncepton. he shud grov up somwher by 30 years or 35.so and then ol the time just regenerate oun celss..

[kristaps jakobsons]

he sad that the DNA code cuts oun self shorter and shorter .

if he wonts a made a immortam worm he neds a 3 parts of DNA. 1 dna is a in each cell.2 dna code shud regenerate oun self from proteins and the 3 dna code shud be that oll fizical concept togheter. the 1 code shud include oll codes together.thats the chemical and fizikal conception of immortaliry. the 1 dna code iclude self regeneration and dna code regeneration form proteins and dameg regeneration.and that oll shud be in each cell.

[macadamia238]

Turns out that Robert Thompson and James V. McConnell took worms and shocked them and shined a light on them, then removed the light, and the worms remembered that a light meant the symptom of shock. After being cut the so called offspring had this trait, but so did other worms introduced after (not being related to the test worms). They hypothesized that memory was transferred through hormones.If they truly are immortal and time lords, could they hold a key to our past? (i.e. CatastophicEvents)