Clear Invivid is sponsored by the Covley Foundation, dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity.

I'm Alan Alder, and this is Clear Invivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

Even complex human behaviors are built from simple building blocks that are present in organisms like nematode worms and fruit flies and fish.

Now, worms are never going to speak French or play the piano, but there's some basic things that a worm has to be able to do that humans do too.

Worms experience hunger, worms get sick, worms experience stress and averse of conditions. They have to respond to these, and we can use the very simple animal to ask what are the building blocks that let that happen.

You can watch the animal think while it's moving around.

I've had a soft spot in my heart for a tiny little worm called sea elegans. Ever since I first watched them under a microscope.

They've been the subjects of thousands of experiments revealing secrets about topics ranging from how the nervous system works to aging.

And I'm not just talking about worm secrets, but secrets about ourselves.

And of all the scientists fascinated by that little nematode worm.

Few have been so creative as my guest, Corey Bargman. She's not only revealed many of those secrets in her research, but she also has a wonderful way of explaining them.

Her extraordinary talents of letter to heading a scientific effort to conquer all human diseases by the end of the century, and to being awarded the 2012 Coffley Prize in Neuroscience.

Corey, this is so great that you could be with me today. I'm really thrilled to talk to you.

Your life and science spans so many interests and achievements. You know, you remember that I was there in 2012.

The night you were awarded the Coffley Prize in Oslo.

Yes, that was a wonderful evening and a celebration of all kinds of science.

Every couple of years I've helped the Coffley Prize give out the awards along with King Harold. He's a nice king, isn't he?

I don't have a lot to compare it to, but yes, he seemed a very gracious person.

He's lovely. He walks among the people and he's a regular guy. I really admire him.

So you won that night, along with Vinford Denk and Grabeel, for your work on neuronal mechanisms that underlie perception and decision.

And that's so interesting to me because you have worked so much with C. elegans, the microscopic roundworm.

I didn't know C. elegans, those little microscopic worms made decisions.

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