Aging insight: Scientists have found that aging in the microscopic worm Caenorhabditis elegans (shown here) may result in part from a developmental pathway gone awry. Credit: Yelena Budovskaya

Environmental stresses and cell damage play a role in the longevity of humans and simple soil-dwelling nematodes. But new research from Stanford University shows that in the short-lived worm Caenorhabditis elegans, such stresses have no effect on the changes in gene expression that accompany worm aging, hinting that another process is at ...