Worm Watch Lab Talk

EGg defective - Second tiny worm?

  • Greenbrier by Greenbrier

    Am I seeing a second extremely tiny worm emerge from this C. elegans? It appears to swim away to the right and downward, then turns back to the C. elegans. It is a baby? Is the EGg defective version possibly causing near "live births" instead of eggs?

    Ha! Now I'm so curious, I almost wish I'd studied biology instead of math and physics.

    Posted

  • wrschafer by wrschafer scientist in response to Greenbrier's comment.

    yes, that is right--sometimes worms lay eggs so slowly that they hatch inside the mother worm. if they are really severely egg-laying defective these can actually start eating the mother from within, leading to the grisly phenomenon of the "bag of worms". Don't think we have any movies of this sort though....

    Posted

  • geckzilla by geckzilla

    Re: "bag of worms" Oh, why not? Is recording stopped before that has a chance to happen?

    Greenbrier: Just grab a used Campbell's biology book. I got one that's an 8th edition for around $20. There's also a bunch of free online courses. I've been doing one from MIT's OpenCourseWare. I'm having a hard time remembering all the vocabulary. I made the silly mistake of not expecting "introduction to biology" to start off with basic biochemistry and trying to remember all the different bonds and molecular groups seems nigh impossible but now I can say I sort of get what's going on in this Folding@Home program. Emphasis on "sort of"

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  • aexbrown by aexbrown scientist in response to geckzilla's comment.

    All the worms here are relatively young adults so they haven't had the eggs long enough for them to hatch inside the mother even in cases where the eggs can't be laid at all.

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