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Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth
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."
I for one welcome our new irradiated cockroach overlords.
:(
Really, I apologize, I can't help it...
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
Don't forget to test twinkies as well
I wonder how they will handle the nuclear safety of their own and their crew.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Lets hope they don't get besieged by PETA, who seem to want to protect the rights cockroaches now
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
The Mythbusters are going to take cockroaches and other insects and apply successively higher doses of radiation in a controlled setting.
So, what precautions do they have on hand in the event one of them grows to enormous size and goes on a rampage?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Sheesh, this is obviously an attempt to create giant monsters to ravage America. Why do Mythbusters hate America?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Cockroaches are spread out and hidden in walls so they're in places that less radiation will hit. After nuclear winter, they can eat all the carcasses of higher life forms and just plain survive. I never thought,"Hey, cockroaches can withstand more heat than other living organisms." We all know the bacteria that lives in deep sea vents will last because it doesn't get it's energy from the sun, and its shielded from the radiation above ground. Life will continue after nuclear winter, that is certain, but will human life continue is the question.
God spoke to me.
Funny, it seems that a lot of scientists have done just that.
For a pretty decent explanation: the mysterious Dr. Karl!
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We are not amused.
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According to "The World Without Us", by Alan Weisman - most of the roaches in the industrialized world will be Dead within 3 years of humanity disappearing! Thats without even the radiation. So don't worry... when we go, the roaches will go with us.
...otherwise his mustache will become huge and go on a rampage!
Towards the Singularity.
As a proud resident of cochroach-ridden New York City, I can report that the little devils are immune to everything but Boric Acid which--apparently--causes them to become constipated.
Where exactly did you go to high school? :)
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Don't get bitten by any of those radioactive cockroaches. Lord knows the superpowers you'd acquire.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060426175941/http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~maronj/text/roach.html
Still waiting for the episode on Catholicism.
In a former life, I worked as an NDT technician. One of our biggest jobs was industrial radiography. Which, long story short, involves radioisotope cameras and lots of safety training. With an radiation safety expert, radiation alarms, survey meters, and proper equipment they'll be plenty safe.
The biggest problem for them would be to properly dose the cockroaches. What kinds and levels of radiation will they be receiving? Any clown can x-ray a roach until it dies, but what would the fallout profile of a world-ending nuclear war look like? What's the long-term effect of radioisotopes in their bodies? How much ionizing radiation will they receive?
There's alpha, beta, gamma, neutron... What kind of radiation are they going to use? Safety, while incredibly important for an experiment like this, is relatively easy to accomplish if they get an expert. Attacking the correct problem may prove far more troublesome.
I think you answered your own question.
I heard an interview once with a scientist who wanted "endangered species" to include the less cuddly critters. He cited the fact that when the last surviving California condors were captured for breeding, the first thing that was done to them was a delousing. It never occurred to anybody that if a species is endangered, then their parasites must be endangered as well.
Ok so when does the "But all life is valuable" argument begin to sound idiotic. what about the Aids virus? what about that life? what about all other Virus "Life-Forms" that cause all kinds of horrible ailments and diseases? wont' somebody think of them too? is there life any less valuable then another?
Strange that people like yourself can't tell the difference between a cockroach and a dog.
Dude, roaches and dogs taste COMPLETELY different.
Hell, I might do it for fun.
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 as for the reverse, you can bet, in a quarantine situation, they would kill as many as it took (or as they could) to keep the sick separated from the well. It's the only thing that can be done in that situation, 1, 100, or 1,000,000. The reverse also holds: if you were stuck in a quarantine, and you believed yourself or your family to be in danger of being infected, you'd do whatever you could to break quarantine, even at the risk of infecting countless others...That's why they defend barricades with guns, not pamphlets on disease control.
The desire to protect yourself and your loved ones trumps it all, when it comes down to it. That's just human nature.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I can assure you that Catholicism does exist.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Mythbusters is not pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is when people misuse scientific terms to tick people into believing in some manner of BS.
Mythbusters uses their science terminology properly, is open to peer review, and doesn't try to trick anyone. They even go so far as retesting things if their viewers find holes in their methodologies. It may not be formal, academic science, but it IS real science.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Seriously though, Mythbusters just plain old has a policy of not testing any religious myths. Saw it mentioned in their forums.
Seems mythic enough to me.
You are mythtaken, it is actually a mythtery
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
I use to radiate parts for Motorola back when I worked for the Military Electronics group. We use to use the Gamma cell over at ASU. We put in a cockroach one Friday and came back Monday to check on it. Can't remember if it was the new gamma cell or the old one. The new one was around 20KRads/Min the old one was around 1KR/min. Either way, it was in the chamber for about 3 days or about 4320 mins. Bounded it got between 86Mega Rads or 4.3Mega Rads. It lived. There is little or no water in a cockroach so there is nothing to absorb the radiation. To Gamma radiation, they are immune. To be a correct experiment they would need to expose across a broad range of particles and radiation and not just Gamma.
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
Actually, I think that's morally indefensible.
Who are you saving? What are you actually doing? You're just torturing some slob for dated information that's not going to help anyone. And torture is a crappy way of getting accurate information anyhow...Witness all the people who "confessed" to witchcraft during the inquisition, and the witch trials.
Traditional intelligence gathering methods were sufficient to get the information that would have stopped 9/11, if the methods of analysis were good enough. Now, they're gathering so much more information, and I've seen no proof that their methods of analysis have improved by anything even resembling a similar amount...Basically, they're drowning themselves in un-analyzed crap information, while giving concrete examples to the people who think that we're corrupt torturers, that we are in fact, corrupt torturers, and screwing the people at home who're finding it hard to think we really are the good guys when we're torturing POWs, and yes, if we're "at war" with terror, then people we capture in the war, are POWs...That's what it means.
In short, it's stupid, it's pointless, and it's immoral. We may be forgiven for taking the moral low road for an end like saving a million people, but when you take the moral low road for a worthless end, you should expect to be strung up by your nuts for it. Make no mistake; you sacrifice a human life because of something you think is right, that's still murder...If enough other people think you were right to do so, society may forgive you. Otherwise, they may put your ass in the electric chair.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I think it's faster to come up with something funny to say, rather than something profound.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
Whereas you, noble and virtuous, will refuse. You will tell your pregnant wife, and your three kids, "Okay, we're all going to die so that the people outside can go on living their corrupt and venal lives like we don't exist."
I haven't been in that situation, so I'm not quite sure what I'd do. It'll depend on a lot of things. How long do I stay in quarantine if there is no food? How long if no water? No vague attempt at medical aid from the outside? No idea.
But you apparently know...Unlike all the "trample your fellow man" sheep of the world, you'd never act in anything but a selfless manner.
Or you're talking out of your ass. I've seen a lot of people talk a big line, and the bigger the line, the faster they crack when the shit hits the fan.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.