holy shit i am learning that there is a worm that is 1mm long called the caenorhabditis elegans that has so few cells in it's body that it's known and documented what EACH of the <1000 CELLS is and does??? it's brain only has 302 neurons which means apparently they're not far off from being able to record this thing's complete neural activity.
where this is going is a project called OpenWorm which looks like an attempt to digitally simulate the entire physical+neural workings of this worm??
here's the OpenWorm Wikipedia and their website
tumblr worm fandom: mean girls talking about amy dallon
cohost worm fandom: hey what if we sequenced every neuron in a worm's brain. this is normal to want and possible to achieve
Specific loops of neurons that output a rhythmic behavior are called central pattern generators and they're the shit. We have them too for stuff like breathing and walking and chewing! Vertebrates have big groups of neurons acting together instead of individual cells, but they're organized similarly.
(The game is Crescent Loom, it works in-browser.)
This worm is a scientist’s best friend. Not just because it’s small and simple as stated above, but also because it’s pretty closely related to humans and has some very similar organ structures. It’s one of the most used species in medical and public health studies these days.
In fact, I would say we owe our modern knowledge of health to c. elegans. Might just start a fan club for our little buddy.