Planarians

Harvard researchers try to replicate 1960s planarian memory-transfer experiments

A team led by Harvard neuroscientist Sam Gershman is attempting to reproduce James McConnell's 1960s claim that trained flatworms could pass learned behavior to other worms through cannibalism. Research assistant Zachary Kelso has spent months collecting wild planarians from rivers and lakes across the US because worms bought from biological supply companies failed to respond to conditioning in the lab.