Have you ever felt like you’re living the same day over and over again? You may be experiencing Groundhog Day syndrome, a psychological phenomenon named for the classic romantic comedy starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Or you may be a specially mutated version of the C. elegans worm.
As Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Chris Hammell explains in the latest installment of our Cocktails & Chromosomes series, worms with a certain genetic mutation will “repeat” part of their developmental program “over and over again, very much like the newscaster in Groundhog Day.” As a result, they never properly age. Meanwhile, worms with another kind of mutation will exhibit adult characteristics much earlier than normal. Picture a baby with a beard, and you’ll get the idea.
Press play to see what C. Hammell’s favorite test subject, C. elegans, can tell us about aging and development. And join us for the next Cocktails & Chromosomes talk on September 25. CSHL Professor Alexei Koulakov will discuss his lab’s fascinating work using theoretical physics to better understand the brain.