AN AUSTRALIAN scientist has taken the relationship between worms and alcohol to a new level.
In researching how alcohol affects the nervous system, US-based geneticist Andrew Davies soaked millions of worms in alcohol until they became legless.
Dr Davies, who graduated from the University of Melbourne, and colleagues discovered two genes that play key roles in getting the worms intoxicated and in the development of their tolerance to alcohol.
Dr Davies, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, began working with alcohol and roundworms, or Caenorhabditis elegans, almost a decade ago, and will give a seminar at Melbourne's Bio 21 Institute today.
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