We’ve all had one, that tune you can’t recognise which gets into your brain and you can’t get rid of it. Lots of research has been done which concluded the phenomenon was probably a ‘brain fart’ where the mind recalls a section of music stored in our long term memories. That was unknowingly closer to the truth than expected!
A recent study by Professor Tristia Shise at the University Of Swansea has revealed an extraordinary creature hitherto undiscovered by using a powerful electron microscope. The micro-worm lives inside the inner ear and is dormant for most of its life only awakening when it needs to excrete its gases.
TINY WORM-LIKE CREATURE
Newsishy spoke to Professor Shise at her lab in Wales and asked how she made her discovery?
“Purely by accident actually. I was looking at a section of the inner ear taken from a recently deceased patient for a study into hearing loss.
Through the microscope at maximum magnification I saw a tiny wormlike creature with what appeared to be arm-like appendages holding some sort of device.
It was dead of course but nevertheless an incredible sight. I named it Stuart or Nematode Stuartatitis”
That must have been mind blowing for you, seeing something never seen before with human eyes:
“It was, I had to grab several colleagues to have a look and confirm it. That was a year ago and after the initial shock we started the process of acquiring some living patients to see if we can find the little chap in action. We still did not know what its purpose was at that point.
So as we know you started looking for the live specimen and found it!
“Yes we had several subjects, they had to be put into a deep sleep to limit any movement because of the microscope. I found a Stuart worm in every test subject, the worms were alive but dormant except for one.”
EVERYTHING CLICKED
What was the non dormant word doing?
“It was playing Uptown Top Ranking by Althea & Donna on a tiny synthesizer. It was really getting down and seemed completely absorbed in the music. It played a small section, stopped for a while and started again. It was incredible.”
And how did you discover it was in fact the previously unknown Ear Worm?
“During interviews with our subjects, the lady in which we found Stuart playing the song happened to mention she’d been having a tune in her head for a few days and couldn’t identify it. Everything clicked then.”
And you have found out a lot more about this little worm since the initial detection?
“Yes, lots. Nematode Stuartatitis is pretty much dormant for the life of the human, occasionally it needs to release pressure from gases that build up in its system, essentially farting and it does that by playing a tune from its host’s long term memory.
We don’t know why it does this but we do know that once the human has identified the song and either hummed or sang it the worm’s gasses dissipate and it goes back to being dormant again.”
Well congratulations on your incredible discovery, it’s unbelievable!
