Worm research could aid farms
Graduate student’s
experiments may help
developing countries
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
Untying the life cycle of the Gordian worm may
hold the clues to reducing world hunger, said Ben
Hanelt, a graduate student working toward his doc
torate in parasitology.
Hanelt, an international student from Germany,
is one of two researchers worldwide currently work
ing with the Gordian worm. The other researcher is in
Germany, Hanelt said.
The worm kills pests that destroy crops in many
developing nations.
“Ben is very rapidly becoming a world expert,”
said John Janovy, professor of biological sciences.
Janovy provides his lab for Hanelt’s research.
Hanelt began his research on the Gordian worm
as an undeigraduate in Albuquerque, N.M., 10 years
ago. He is starting his third year of research at UNL.
“My goal was to complete the worm’s life cycle.
It’s never been done before,” Hanelt said.
The Gordian worm, a freshwater species in the
Nematamorpha phylum, infects insects such as
crickets and grasshoppers and then signals them to
find water. The worm makes the insect commit sui
cide by jumping in the water, Hanelt said.
Once in water the Gordian worm is finished with
its host and will crack through the insect’s body.
When the worm infects the insect, it will castrate
and kill the insect, Hanelt said.
Therefore, the worm could help developing
nations by eliminating pests that are destroying their
crops, Hanelt said.
Because the worms need water to survive,
Hanelt’s theory is to provide water troughs for the
worm’s reproduction and then take them away after
the pests die, thus eliminating the worms, Hanelt
said.
This would prevent overpopulation of Gordian
Photo Courtesy of Ben Hanelt
ABOUT 100 adult Gordian worms clump together next to a ruler, which measures in centimeters.
Graduate student Ben Hanelt has been researching the worms for 10 years.
worms in the areas they are introduced to, he said.
Also, some of the worms are very specific and
could eliminate specific pests, Hanelt said.
To make this possible, Hanelt needed to find the
link between the worm in its larvae stage, which is
found in streams, and the land insects that it infects.
Hanelt found that the worm in its larvae stage
comes into contact with an aquatic insect, like a fly,
also in its larvae stage. Then the worm infects the
aquatic insect and is carried out of the water by its
host.
The infected aquatic insect is then eaten by
another insect, such as a grasshopper or cricket.
The worm, which is named after a Gordian myth
because of the way the adult worms knot together,
looks much like a horse hair.
The longest recorded Gordian worm was about
4.5 feet long, but they are usually between 1 and 2
feet long.
Although they are only parasitic when in insects,
there are records of these worms infecting humans.
Most of the published accounts, which are mainly
from the United States and India, attribute infection
from water or accidental ingestion of an infected
insect, Hanelt said.
This past summer Hanelt presented his research
on the Gordian worm at the American Society of
Parasitologists meeting in California and won best
student paper.
Janovy said: “It’s exciting to see a grad student
who is so thrilled about their work; so head over heels
about animals.”
Quayle may pull
out of GOP race
■ The former vice
president wasn’t able to
raise enough to compete, a
campaign official said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former
Vice President Dan Quayle has decid
ed to drop out of the Republican presi
dential race, after determining that he
can’t compete with George W. Bush’s
fund-raising juggernaut, a campaign
official said.
Quayle will announce his inten
tions at a news conference today in
Phoenix, said a senior campaign offi
cial, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
His departure winnows the GOP
field to eight major Republican candi
dates and will increase speculation
about the financial and political health
of the remaining contenders.
Conservative commentator Pat
Buchanan is on the brink of bolting
from the GOP to seek the Reform
Party nomination.
The Quayle official said the former
vice president decided to quit this
--
weekend after consulting with his
wife, Marilyn, and campaign manager
Kyle McSlarrow.
The trio determined that Quayle
could not raise enough money to com
pete deep into the primary season,
even if he fared well in New
Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation pri
mary state.
Bush, the two-term Texas gover
nor, has raised more than $50 million
— five times that of his nearest chal
lenger. Quayle has been running a debt
since early in the campaign.
Rep. John Kasich of Ohio, former
Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and
Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire
dropped out of the GOP primary con
test earlier this year.
Kasich endorsed Bush. Alexander,
like Quayle, cited Bush’s fund-raising
prowess as a reason for leaving. Smith
is considering a third-party bid.
The former vice president is not
expected to endorse a candidacy today.
Quayle’s announcement comes as
the remaining campaigns prepare to
file their October finance statements
that will disclose how well or poorly
their fund-raising operations are doing.
Two brothers found
alive in quake rubble
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Two
brothers were pulled to freedom
Sunday after five and a half days
buried alive in the wreckage of
Taiwan’s killer quake.
They said they survived by eating
a few apples and playing cards in the
small space where they were trapped.
Amid the devastation and shat
tered hopes, Taiwanese were cheered
by the improbable survival of Sun
Chi-kwang, 20, and Sun Chi-feng,
who turned 26 on Wednesday, one day
into their 130-hour ordeal in the
wreckage of a collapsed Taipei build
ing.
The brothers were rescued even as
powerful aftershocks continue to jolt
Taiwan. A particularly strong one hit
early Sunday, killing at least three peo
ple on top of more than 2,000 who had
already died.
Onlookers applauded as the
younger Sun, stripped to the waist but
staying upright and holding a bottle of
water he got from rescue workers, was
lifted to safety by a crane. His brother
was rushed away on a stretcher.
Their mother, Liu Luan, heaved
with sobs of joy as her sons came out
alive, speaking so fast she was almost
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incoherent.
“I kept thinking, ‘This is not possi
ble, this is not possible,’” Liu told
reporters at the scene. “I kept praying
for them all the time.”
The brothers were hospitalized in
stable condition. Doctors were check
ing them for possible internal injuries
or dehydration.
The Sun brothers had been play
ing bridge when the 7.6-magnitude
quake struck in the wee hours Tuesday.
The 12-story building they were in
crumpled, flattening parts of the hotel,
offices and apartments it contained.
The brothers’ parents and sister were
not at home at the time.
The two kept up their spirits by
continuing their card game while they
waited in the small space, their doctor
said by telephone.
When their water ran out, they
were forced to drink their own urine.
SunChi-kwang told TVBS televi
sion that while trapped he had “a very
strange dream” in which “there was
someone beside me saying that behind
the fridge there was a hole from where
I could get out.”
“I thought that was really strange,
and I told my older brother. He asked
me what it meant and said fate could
not have been talking to me, so I went
back to sleep,” Sun said.
“A little later I saw a hole, and
indeed it turned out to be a big hole,”
he said, referring to the hole rescuers
carved into the rubble to reach them.
The aftershock killed three peo
ple, injured at least 58 and buried
another 20 in the rubble.
Deaths from the new tremor, and
more bodies unearthed on Sunday,
brought the confirmed toll from the
quakes to 2,056.
On Saturday, President Lee Teng
hui signed a decree giving the military
increased powers to maintain order.
The decree, which would super
sede all existing laws for six months,
still must be approved by legislators.
■ Washington
IMF’s debt relief initiative
to aid poorest countries
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
International Monetary Fund, under
mounting pressure in the wake of a
Russian corruption scandal, put in
place a major new debt relief initia
tive Sunday and adopted a number of
internal reforms aimed at improving
the agency’s management of future
crises.
All the activity around the annual
meetings of the 182-nation IMF and
the World Bank was aimed at damp
ing criticism that the two giant lend
ing agencies failed to coordinate pro
grams and badly mismanaged the
recent global financial turmoil.
IMF and World Bank officials, at
the first-ever joint meeting of the two
agencies’ policy setting committees,
pledged in a statement to support
“deeper, broader and faster debt
relief” for the world’s poorest coun
tries.
The new coordinated effort will
provide debt relief to 36 of the
world’s poorest nations. It is intended
to erase up to $100 billion in debt,
allowing the countries to commit
scarce resources to poverty, health
and education programs.
■ Cincinnati
Springer hasn’t ruled
out political return
CINCINNATI (AP) -
Television talk show host Jerry
Springer, called the “ringmaster” for
his raucous show known for its on
stage brawls, says he won’t rule out a
return to the political ring.
The former Cincinnati mayor
says politics is his passion, and it’s
likely he’ll return to the city one day
to run for office.
He had considered a challenge to
Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine
in 2000, but declined, saying he had
committed his time to the show.
■ Mexico
Explosions leave at least
50 dead in Mexican city
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A series
of explosions ripped through a
crowdetfgrea of street stalls and
shops across from a downtown bus
station in the central Mexican city
of Celaya on Sunday, killing at least
50 people, authorities said.
Media reports said the tragedy
apparently began Mien a fireworks
storehouse exploded about 10:30
a.m. A few minutes later there was a
second large blast. Some reports
said it was caused when gas tanks
used for cooking exploded at a
nearby restaurant, while others
blamed more exploding fireworks.
The second explosion apparent
ly trapped some rescuers who had
responded to the first blast.
■ Turkey
Riots break out in prisons
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Left
wing inmates battled security forces
at an Ankara prison for almost seven
hours Sunday in a riot that left 10
inmates dead and sparked clashes in
prisons across the country.
The violence began early Sunday
morning in Ankara’s Ulucanlar
prison. Guards tried to enter a prison
ward after being tipped that the
inmates were planning to escape by
digging a tunnel, the justice ministry
said.
The about 50 inmates barricaded
themselves in their ward to thwart the
search, fired shots and hurled bombs
at the security forces, the ministry’s
statement said.
The security forces fired tear gas
before storming the ward. The subse
quent fighting killed 10 inmates.
Rioting quickly spread to seven
other prisons across the country.
Left-wing inmates took at least 90
prison guards hostage, officials said.