C. elegans · 302 neurons
My Pet Elegans
A tiny organism. A real nervous system.
Something that feels almost alive.
watching it find food
What is this?
C. elegans is a tiny roundworm, about a millimeter long. It has exactly 302 neurons, and scientists have mapped every single connection between them. The whole wiring diagram is public, published, free to use.
My Pet Elegans puts that wiring into a game. The worm on screen is not following a script. It moves because a simplified version of its actual nervous system is running in the background, processing hunger signals, sensing food with its nose, deciding what to do next. Feed it. Drop an obstacle in its path. Watch it reverse.
It is not an accurate scientific model. It is more like a toy — a strange little observation chamber where something that resembles biology plays out in real time. Calm, odd, and a little hypnotic.
Get it on Google Play Read about the plugin that powers itFeed it
Tap to drop food. The worm smells it, finds it, eats it. Watch the hunger signal clear and the whole nervous system settle.
Watch it think
Its movements are driven by 302 neurons ticking in real time. No scripted paths. Just signals propagating through a connectome.
A petri dish toy
One room. One worm. A handful of controls. Somewhere between a game and a screensaver.
Open source core
The WormBrain plugin that drives the worm is free and open. Build your own experiments in Godot.