Drunk Worms Wiggle Their Solution to an Ig Nobel Win

The 34^th First Annual Ig Nobel Prizes had been introduced on September 12, 2024. Identified to highlight “analysis that makes folks snort…then suppose,” the ten accolades don’t shrink back from a spectrum of distinctive subjects—from crops imitating plastic to mammalian anus-breathing.^1,2

Daniel Bonn, a physicist, and Sander Woutersen, a bodily chemist, together with their colleagues on the College of Amsterdam, had been awarded the chemistry prize for racing drunk and sober worms by means of a chromatography maze to type them by their wriggly exercise to higher perceive polymer dynamics.³  “We’re very excited,” mentioned Bonn. “We’ve had a tough time shutting up about it.”

A lot of Bonn’s work encompasses the Ig Nobel spirit; he beforehand reported on find out how to construct the good sandcastle and why quicksand can not totally submerge its victims.^4,5 Extra just lately, lively polymers, that are able to self-propulsion and play organic roles in cell membrane construction and sperm motility, caught his consideration. As lively polymers are tough to create and observe, given their microscopic dimension, Bonn discovered a novel macro mannequin: the skinny, aquatic Tubifex tubifex worms. Their segmented our bodies resemble polymers that encompass repeating models and, most significantly, show lively movement. So, Bonn and his colleagues got down to discover the physics of those dynamic, polymer-like worms.

Chemists and different life science researchers usually use pillar-array chromatography to separate molecules by means of a maze of pillars. For instance, it could possibly separate DNA strands and polymers of various lengths primarily based on how lengthy it takes for every one to maneuver by means of the column. Woutersen considered a novel use of this device.

I believe the most effective lesson from the experiment, a minimum of for me, is that when a drunk worm is wrapped round a lamppost and a sober worm passes by, he sometimes takes the drunk worm with him.
– Daniel Bonn, College of Amsterdam

“We had the concept that we might separate worms primarily based on size,” mentioned Woutersen. “Clearly, the lengthy ones get caught extra simply round pillars and at equal lengths, then you may separate them on exercise.” They wanted to get inactive worms. After initially toying round with the morbid concept of euthanizing the worms, the group got here up with a extra humane technique—anesthetizing the worms with alcohol.⁶

As an alternative of taking the worms to a tiny tavern, the researchers intoxicated worms by briefly inserting them into a 3 to 5 % ethanol resolution, which additionally contained a small quantity of methylene blue dye. “It labored like a appeal; [the worms] get fully drunk,” mentioned Woutersen. “However in case you put them in water once more, they resurrect and change into sober once more in 20 minutes, with none headache or different issues.” 

To match exercise, they positioned the worms—the naturally reddish worms had been sober, whereas blue worms had been drunk—right into a maze, a hexagonal pillar assay with distilled water flowing alongside its size, and measured the time spent by the worm within the channel. Woutersen anticipated the drunken worms to exit the maze quicker as a result of they might “waft” and the lively worms to get caught alongside the pillars. To his shock, the intoxicated worms exhibited much less exercise and sober worms tended to curve and knot, which helped them navigate by means of the pillars. Inside a couple of minutes, it was clear that sober worms had a neater and quicker time traversing throughout the maze to get to the end line.

“However the unhappy conclusion is that the drunk worms get residence very late,” mentioned Woutersen. Bonn likened the method to the aftermath of an evening of revelry on the pub, the place drunk folks usually latched onto lampposts and mentioned, “Our maze is definitely little pillars, and so the drunk worms really wrap themselves across the pillars and by no means get residence.”

Whereas the work solutions some questions, it additionally raises new ones about utilizing these wriggling worms as a mannequin for finding out the separation of lively polymers. In any case, these worms resonate with the human perspective.

“I believe the most effective lesson from the experiment, a minimum of for me, is that when a drunk worm is wrapped round a lamppost and a sober worm passes by, he sometimes takes the drunk worm with him. So, the ethical of the story is, in case you go to the pub, any person wants to stay sober and convey all people residence,” mentioned Bonn.