Looking Back:
The Worm Runner’s Digest
by Larry Stern
Professor Skinnybox, and On the relation between mathematical and statistical competence and significant scientific productivity, which he published under the pseudonym of F. Galton Pennywhistle.
Spoofs of Freudian theory also appeared. Some comments on an addition to the theory of psychosexual development by Sigmund Fraud introduced the nasal stage, occurring between the anal and phallic stages, in which the libido is localised primarily in the mucous linings of the nose. Though the consequences of poor nasal training might not be as drastic as those accompanying poor toilet training, two pathologies might ensue: feelings of superiority that lead you to turn your nose up at others, and/or being a busybody and constantly sticking your nose in others’ business.
Other notable contributions that graced the Digest’s pages include faux reports on The effects of physical torture on the learning and retention of nonsense syllables, The Gesundheits Test, Taste aversion in dead rats: Learning or motivational defect? and its follow-up Taste aversion in dead rats: A note on proper control procedures. The Digest is also credited with announcing the law of scientific output, where productivity equals the number of secretaries in a laboratory times their average typing speed divided by the number of scientists. Thus, not only is one good secretary worth two good scientists but when the number of scientists is zero, productivity becomes infinite.
But bona fide experimental reports were included in the Digest as well. Some of these, most notably McConnell’s report in 1961 that naive planarians, upon cannibalising their conditioned brethren, showed evidence of remembering the conditioned task, strained the credulity of psychologists. Indeed, the publication of serious articles side-by-side with spoofs apparently posed a problem for some scientists who complained that they weren’t able to distinguish between the serious reports and the parodies.
To deal with this problem, McConnell banished all of the so-called funny stuff to the back of the journal, printing it upside down to make sure that no one would confuse it with the serious work. This began in October 1964. Three years later, the split became formal when McConnell renamed the front part of the journal containing the serious scientific work the Journal of Biological Psychology, retaining the name Worm Runner’s Digest for the back half of the journal.
At its peak, the Digest had roughly 2500 subscribers scattered throughout the world. Since humorous cartoons appear regularly in best-selling psychology textbooks today, it is easy to forget how extraordinary and subversive the Digest was when it first appeared.
As might be expected, responses to the Digest were mixed, reflecting some of the schisms found in the larger society at the time. While admirers hailed the Digest as a scientific Playboy, revelling in its wit, McConnell’s more austere critics referred to it pejoratively as a scientific comic book, arguing that science is not the place for such sophomoric humour. McConnell, in fact, believed that the Digest cost him research grants.
McConnell’s bottom line – that science could and should be fun – is perhaps as important today as it was when he began to champion the cause in 1959. If your library does not hold copies of the Digest, you can find the greatest hits in two anthologies – The Worm Re-turns and Science, Sex, and Sacred Cows – in used bookstores, or online. As Arthur Koestler opined,
One of the last Palinuran joys of civilized middle age is to sit in front of the log-fire, sip a glass of brandy, and read the Worm Runner’s Digest.
Исследования плоских червей продолжаются
Плоские черви фехтуют с помощью выдвижных двуглавых стилетов, похожих на кинжал. Эти стилеты заостренные (а у некоторых видов крючковатые), чтобы проколоть эпидермис своего партнера и ввести сперму в гемоцель в акте.
Один организм оплодотворяет другой, осеменяющая особь выступает в роли отца. Сперма всасывается через поры или иногда раны на коже из стилета партнёра, вызывая оплодотворение у другого, который становится матерью У некоторых видов битва может длиться до часа.
Роды, несмотря на то, что они необходимы для успешного получения потомства, требуют значительных вложений времени и энергии со стороны родителей, и согласно принципу Бейтмена, почти всегда обременяют мать. Таким образом, из модели оптимальности как правило, для организма лучше оплодотворить чем быть оплодотворенным.
На фото два плоских червя вида Pseudobiceros bedfordi готовятся к фехтованию пенисами. Автор снимка: Нико Михилсом.
Publications: Worm Runners on the Run
Now even the seven-year-old Digest has had to retreat before the tide of scientific conformity. Beginning next year, its editor announced last week, the name of the Digest will be the Journal of Biological Psychology.
Proud of It. The original choice of title was not made lightly, says Psychologist-Editor James McConnell, who heads the University of Michigan planarian (flatworm) rese-
