ABSTRACT
Nearly three decades from inception of “the worm project,” Caenorhabditis elegans has become one of the most exhaustively studied model organisms in biology. The initial phase of “Sydney’s madness” was spent in 4 to 5 years of genetic studies on the worm. Caenorhabditis elegans is an one millimeter, transparent, free-living soil nematode found commonly in many parts of the world. C. elegans follows the typical nematode body plan of two concentric tubes, separated by a space called the pseudocoelom. A wiring diagram of the generic connections among the identified neuron classes of the C. elegans nervous system is available. Conventional anatomy proceeds by taking an organism apart and putting its parts together again.
