Dogs may be our best friends, but worms are important, too.
In fact, they’re so important that NPR has dedicated an entire week to the wide world of worms. During the week of August 7–14, the national media producer has highlighted one of our planet’s less celebrated inhabitants on Twitter as part of their #NPRWormWeek.
Fighting worm diseases isn't the most popular job, but someone has to do it. https://t.co/nM5EpOucfh pic.twitter.com/c7UhXpFlg1
— NPR Goats & Soda (@NPRGoatsandSoda) August 10, 2016
From the seemingly odd practice of worms for dinner to preventing parasitic diseases, worms are certainly worthy of at least a week in the spotlight.
But we here at U-M think worms are cool every day of the week. Faculty and students have displayed their worm affection in many ways. Michigan Bio Station researcher and EEB student Morgan Rondinelli was retweeted by NPR for her quiz-style contribution to Worm Week.
Happy #NPRWormWeek from egg specimens at @UMBS
How many parasites can you identify?#UMBS #umichEEB pic.twitter.com/49JrCL2sAJ— Morgan Rondinelli (@MorganRondo) August 10, 2016
In the classroom, MCDB associate professor Gyorgyi Csankovszki uses worms as her main research subject, while EEB associate professor Chelsea Wood teaches a class about human parasites, most of which are worms. And Ph.D. alumna Jasmine Crumsey (M.S. ’09, Ph.D. ’14) used CT scanners and buckets to visualize earthworm burrows.
If all of this worm talk makes you squirm, you can take solace in the fact that you’ll never have to eat fried worms.
If, however, worms warm your heart, you should probably check out NPR Goats & Soda on Twitter and read their Worm Week stories.
P.S. Australia has worms that are six feet long. Seriously.