Caenorhabditis elegans
<p>Dec 05, 2010 11:47 AM  big discussion of FRED, the C elegans with Forrest Bennett.
see the movie of it respond to a touch.
 
Apr 24, 2009 10:58 AM  pronounce  SI ner rabditis.
free-living, transparent nematode (roundworm) abt 1 mm in length which lives in temperate soils.
 
They feed on bacteria that develop in decaying vegetable matter.
 
Multicellular eukarote.  strains are cheap to breed and can be frozen!
 
302 neurons.  total of 959 somatic cells  (1031 in the adult male)
 
100 million base pairs and 20,100  protein-encoding genes.
16,000 RNA genes.</p>