Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I need to find a worm with a life span around 10 days to test the effect of pharmaceutical drugs on life span. PLEASE HELP.

nash531 wrote:I need to find a worm with a life span around 10 days to test the effect of pharmaceutical drugs on life span. PLEASE HELP.

Hi nash531!

For your testing subject, you need a worm with a 10 day + life span, correct?

Well, I would suggest using Earthworms for your project.

For more information on its biology, anatomy, values, and benefits, you can check out some of these website below (These websites can be found also in the Science Buddies Science Fair Project Ideas).

- Short, helpful overview of earthworm facts, benefits, and biology:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2002/ ... 040302.htm

- Everything you would want to know about earthworms and what they do:
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/UC182.pdf.

- Short description of the anatomy, biology, and value of earthworms:
http://www.nysite.com/nature/fauna/earthworm.htm.

- Tips on how to build, maintain, and harvest a worm bin:
http://yucky.discovery.com/noflash/worm/pg000224.html.

- The basic idea for this project came from this DragonflyTV podcast:
http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/wormfarm.html.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

-Grace

Hi,

This sounds like a great idea for a science project. Very original.

Grace has given you some excellent advice on using earthworms. I would also like to recommend that you consider using Caenorhabditis elegans, a worm that has been used to study the molecular basis of aging. This worm with a 10 day to 3-week lifespan that and been used for many studies.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2007/November/Pa ... lives.aspx

Donna Hardy