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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 wonder how they will handle the nuclear safety of their own and their crew.
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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.
And lawyers. Couldn't we try some lawyers???
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
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.
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.
"So what is your criteria for what you will and won't murder ?"
Objection, your Honor - Loaded Question (Or is it leading the witness?)!
The correct question is "So what is your criteria for what you will and won't kill?"
"Killing" is performing an action that causes something that is living to cease doing so.
"Murder" is a legal definition, along with "manslaughter", "homicide", etc. By it's very definition, it is impossible to "murder" a cockroach.
If you are going to troll, do it correctly.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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
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.
This is Mythbusters. They'll do whatever they think is coolest, correctness be damned.
I can assure you that Catholicism does exist.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
And lawyers. Couldn't we try some lawyers???
Are you NUTS? They'll MUTATE! It's bad enough with NORMAL lawyers already!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Seriously though, Mythbusters just plain old has a policy of not testing any religious myths. Saw it mentioned in their forums.
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
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