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Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-be-here-when-we're-gone dept.

redwoodtree writes "An article on the site for the Tri-City Herald sums it up perfectly: 'Contrary to popular belief, not a significant amount of research goes into cockroach radiation.' To test the old saw about 'the cockroaches being the only survivors of a nuclear war' Discovery Channel's Mythbusters are going out to Hanford Site, where plutonium was manufactured for the first nuclear bomb. It's the single most polluted nuclear waste site in the U.S. The Mythbusters are going to take cockroaches and other insects and apply successively higher doses of radiation in a controlled setting."

5 of 573 comments (clear)

  1. That would be great by El+Lobo · · Score: 0, Redundant
    That would be great! Well, unless the association for animal care begins scream about it (yes those guys are THAT weird)...

    Oh, and please, show more Kari in that episode and my life will be good.

    --
    It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
  2. Radiation? by quantum+bit · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I, for one, welcome our giant super-intelligent mutant cockroach overlords.

  3. Hmm... by Bwana+Geek · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Part of me wonders if some special interest group will lash out and/or try to intervene. After all, there are many people who believe that ALL life -- even cockroaches and other insects -- is sacred. But the other part of me thinks this is BITCHIN'!

  4. obligatory posting on cocroach overlords, anyone? by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 0, Redundant

    or may be, in Soviet Russia, the cockroaches nuke *YOU*.

  5. Re:Deadly virus? by mi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    These kinds of "dilemma's" are nothing but intellectual masturbation. I'll tell you right now: in a real world situation, that man or that dog would be a greasy spot if it was only thought that their death would save 100,000 people.

    And yet the US government is being rather harshly criticized for — not killing — merely waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorism suspects.

    Although a practical argument questions the accuracy of information provided by a tortured person, most of the objections come from the moral/ethical viewpoint. The criticism was so high, in fact, the Administration decided to stop doing it — lives be damned, we can not torture anyone, period. Not even if the torture is purely mental (such as waterboarding), rather than permanently disfiguring...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.