A SINGLE gene mutation allows worms to survive at oxygen levels low enough to kill their normal relatives. The finding points to possible new strategies to prevent cells being damaged when a stroke or heart attack interrupts their oxygen supply.

Michael Crowder and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, found that worms with a mutated version of the gene rrt-1 recovered fully after 20 hours in a hypoxic, or low oxygen, environment. What’s more, normal worms subjected to milder hypoxia, which would normally kill them a few hours later, were more likely to survive …