Spectator competition winners: the worm who came back to life after 46,000 years

In Competition No. 3313, you were invited to supply a poem about the worms that were resurrected by scientists after being frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years.

The tiny roundworms, buried deep underground since the late Pleistocene, were brought back to life by being immersed in water and transported to Germany – in a scientist’s pocket – to see what lessons the creatures might yield for 21st-century humanity. (They were, it was discovered, able to survive extreme low temperatures by entering a dormant state called cryptobiosis.)

Their remarkable story produced a smart, lively and varied entry. A commendation to W.J. Webster’s limerick:

A Pleistocene worm from Siberia,

Dug up in the frozen interior,

Had the permafrost thawed

And its life was restored:

Have you ever heard anything eerier?