The "drunk worms" in a prize-winning chemistry experiment really were drunk. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam soaked aquarium worms in a weak alcohol solution, then sent them through a water-filled obstacle course alongside sober worms. The sober worms came out the other end first.
The study, published in 2022 in Science Advances, was not about animal drinking. It used the worms as living stand-ins for long-chain molecules called polymers to test whether chromatography, a standard lab method for separating mixtures, could sort objects by how actively they move. The team received the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for using chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms."
