The Tiny Worm that can Help Treat Trauma Patients and Facilitate Long-Distance Human Space Travel

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

In 1999, 29-year-old Anna Bagenholm survived a body temperature of 13.7 degrees Celsius (56.7 degrees Fahrenheit), after a skiing accident sent her under ice in a river. Her heart did not beat for several hours. The story was later relayed by the BBC.

Now, a group of researchers in Oslo have come closer to explaining what happens in cells that experience deep cooling.

Their work is relevant for both hibernation and accidental hypothermia. It has ramifications for treating trauma patients in hospitals, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and, in the future, might help humans travel in space.

[...] "We started looking at them in our favorite model organism, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans," he says.

[...] They saw that if they cool the C. elegans in a particular way, they will survive for a very long time without affecting the total lifespan.

[...] "We started looking at what happens in this organism and, while doing genetics on this model, we realized that there are certain manipulations we can do that make the survival of these animals in the cold even more effective."

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