This is definitely the way forward.

In the past, the research has focused on re-creating non-trivial neural networks. However, the network is nothing without the organism - sure, you can examine the internal oscillations - but that hasn't led us anywhere. (See "Perfect C.Elegans" research paper, 1998). One can't debug without seeing the results, and that's the case with a neural network without the rest of the organism.

Why C.Elegans? It's the simplest organism with a nervous system (302 neurons), and the connectivity has been completely mapped. It's a hermaphrodite, with a fully-sequenced DNA. It's also one of the more studied organisms out there.

So, how long until we're sending Russian lobsters into space?

Best of luck to them. I hope they succeed to the point where interesting ethical issues are raised.

I might be asking a dumb question here but can it be possible to eventually simulate the worm's reproduction cycle so that we can fast forward the simulation to millions or even billions of generations to see more complex organisms evolving?

Looks like the beginning of Permutation City[1] - won't be long now (relatively) until we won't be able to observe a difference between real c.elegans and simulated c.elegans, simulate its environment, simulate other organisms, etc. Will these worms be _alive_? What happens when computers become advanced enough to simulate humans? What if they already are? o_O

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City

I like the way they are executing it. Interacting with the people, not just sitting in the lab doing random science.

Would doing a kickstarter be useful for these folks?