Though earthworms turning garbage into gold is irresistibly interesting, worms get pressed into many other services for humanity. The Jerusalem Post, a newspaper, reports findings from the Hebrew University research in which the team repaired worm neurology. The research team created and introduced engineered connections that bypassed missing and damaged connections.
While this is a discovery that has so far been limited to a tiny worm, it opens the door for potential applications that may be relevant down the road to humans -- Dr. Ithai Rabinowitch, lead researcher at the Faculty of Medicine at Hebrew University.
The C. elegans worm is one of the few organisms that science has completely mapped, including its genetics and neurology. As a result, we often see its use in scientific studies of this sort. The lowly worm is a gateway to further applications, even in humans. The team at the Hebrew University feels that the technique they have developed could eventually apply to human brain damage.