Unlike whiskers on kittens, flatworms would hardly make most lists of favorite things.
But for college student and researcher Anna Klompen, flatworms have, well, wormed their way into her heart.
"They make me laugh every time I look at them," Klompen said. "They have a twirling motion when they swim — they're not doing flip somersaults, but they're just twirling all the way around. And they're very light-sensitive, so if I shine a bright light in one section of the beaker, they're all very attracted to it. I can get a couple hundred of them ... all trying to clamber up towards the light, and it's just very much like watching children running after candy.
"Now, I really adore these flatworms. ... I love showing them to people. And I am called the 'flatworm mom,' and I would say I embrace that."
Klompen, 22, is a senior studying chemistry and biology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. She started out viewing the critters as a simple laboratory project but soon stumbled onto a discovery that refuted scientific literature on flatworm larvae and could have implications for oyster restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay.
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