'Mythbusters' test seeks to determine if cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust

 

After a nuclear holocaust, would cockroaches really be the last creatures standing?

 

That's a question for the same people who've tested whether you can jump in a falling elevator to save yourself, whether throwing a toaster into a bathtub really will electrocute someone and whether dropping a penny from a skyscraper is lethal.

 

A team from the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters is at the Hanford nuclear reservation this week to get to the bottom of the nuclear survival myth.

 

"It's been on the original list of myths since day one," said Kari Byron, one of the Mythbuster stars, who came to town with Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci.

 

The show not only had to find a place to do the testing, but it also had to convince the Discovery Channel that it could be done safely.

 

"People are just scared when they hear radiation," Byron said. "Too many zombie movies."

 

The crew is using an irradiator in the basement of Hanford's 318 Building just north of Richland. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory usually uses it to calibrate dosimeters and test for radiation damage on equipment such as video cameras and fiber optic cables.

 

But Thursday afternoon, Byron and Imahara were moving uncooperative cockroaches into a specially built roach condo to be exposed in the irradiator.

 

"I had to put myself in quite the mindset to do it," Byron said.

 

The experiment required 200 cockroaches sent to Richland by a scientific supply company.

 

"They're all laboratory-grade. Farm fresh," Imahara said.

 

Fifty will get no radiation so they can be used as a control group. Another 50 will be exposed to 1,000 rad of radiation, the exposure that's lethal to humans.

 

It gets worse from there for the bugs. The next 50 will be exposed to 10,000 rad and the final to 100,000 rad.

 

They'll be compared against flour beetles and fruit flies that will get equal radiation exposures.

 

But it was the roaches causing the team grief as they tried to corral them inside a set of tiny blocks arrayed to make sure each got the same radiation exposure.

 

"They are very fast. They are very aggressive. They want to get away," Byron said. "They are opportunists."

 

"Frustrating" and "gross," Imahara said.

 

All the bugs will go back to San Francisco. But instead of flying, a Mythbusters employee is having to drive the bugs back. Airlines, it seems, don't like cockroaches on a plane.

 

They can't fly in the baggage hold without upsetting the experiment.

 

"We have to maintain reasonable temperature and humidity so they don't go into shock," Imahara said.

 

The bugs will be watched over the next couple of weeks to see how soon they die.

 

"Contrary to popular belief, not a significant amount of research goes into cockroach radiation," Imahara said.

 

But scientists do know that cockroaches and other insects do not have all the complex organs that humans have that can be damaged by radiation.

 

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory agreed to play host to the visit in the interest of science education. Staff donated their time, including workers who took vacation time to operate the irradiator. Mythbusters showed their appreciation by meeting with laboratory staff and their children to answer questions as part of a food drive for the Tri-Cities Food Bank.

 

The show, while perhaps best known for exploding outhouses and cement trucks, presents good examples of scientific method and encourages developing a questioning attitude, said Michelle Johnson, a technical group manager for the national lab.

 

"(Viewers) should learn that things don't glow if exposed to radiation," she said. "And they won't be radioactive after being exposed to radiation."

 

But will the roaches grow really, really large?

 

"Some of our staff do believe in comic book logic," Byron said.

 

And if that happens, it will be a really good show, she said.

 

The episode should air in about four months.

 

 

 

 

 

That is so cool. They were just down at my University for HESTEC.

Does PETA get mad about bugs too? Or just animals?

 

Not that I care, i think this experiment is interesting. I can just see the protests coming

Maybe they can test the myth that PETA people could survive radiation and use them for the next experiment. The first 200 that show up to protest instead volunteer.

Maybe they can test the myth that PETA people could survive radiation and use them for the next experiment. The first 200 that show up to protest instead volunteer.

 

I second this

Maybe they can test the myth that PETA people could survive radiation and use them for the next experiment. The first 200 that show up to protest instead volunteer.

Really, what kind of losers would go around protesting against the torture of animals? Maybe PETA should have been at Abu Ghraib instead of shooting

embarrassing video footage taken by the employee (one clip showed a lab worker using scissors to cut the heads off of baby rats while saying: ''I don't put them to sleep. Maybe it's illegal, but it's easier.").

 

Come on, they're rats for God sake.

 

Of course, like many other US government and private interests, what to do if you can't torture?

 

outsource

Really, what kind of losers would go around protesting against the torture of animals? Maybe PETA should have been at Abu Ghraib instead of shooting

Come on, they're rats for God sake.

 

Of course, like many other US government and private interests, what to do if you can't torture?

 

outsource

I believe for baby rats it actually it protocol to use sheers to sacrifice them.

Yup, they are surley a class unto themselves, those PETA people.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressReleas...cfm/release/109

 

As usual, Tex, you take my comment and go so way over the top that it isn't funny. Cruelty to animals is one thnig. My wife, myself and my oldest son do alot of work for the local Humane Society, donating both time and money. But when PETA devolves into protesting windmill farms because a few birds might get hurt, settign tame minks free into the winter snowscape to die rather than be used for fur, or to try and take away my steak dinner, they have go too far. And if someone from PETA showed up to protest the testing on COCKROACHES, that would just be sad. I am sure PETA has many menbers who are caring, loving people who desire better treatment for animals. But there are also many in PETA who couldn't give two s***s about you and me, as long as the animals are better off. I guess the ones in the story I linked don't fit into either catagory. However, I don't think they were merely just 2 rouge elements in an otherwise pristine system, but rather that the system is rotten to the core and merely shows us the side it wants us to see in order to keep raising money.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa38...01/ai_n17180337

C'mon, who with a sane mind would make this comparrison as a moral equivilent:

In 1983, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote these amazing words in a Washington Post article: "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses."

I believe for baby rats it actually it protocol to use sheers to sacrifice them.

 

For Jim and Jim, it's shaving them first.....

Yup, they are surley a class unto themselves, those PETA people.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressReleas...cfm/release/109

 

As usual, Tex, you take my comment and go so way over the top that it isn't funny. Cruelty to animals is one thnig. My wife, myself and my oldest son do alot of work for the local Humane Society, donating both time and money. But when PETA devolves into protesting windmill farms because a few birds might get hurt, settign tame minks free into the winter snowscape to die rather than be used for fur, or to try and take away my steak dinner, they have go too far. And if someone from PETA showed up to protest the testing on COCKROACHES, that would just be sad. I am sure PETA has many menbers who are caring, loving people who desire better treatment for animals. But there are also many in PETA who couldn't give two s***s about you and me, as long as the animals are better off. I guess the ones in the story I linked don't fit into either catagory. However, I don't think they were merely just 2 rouge elements in an otherwise pristine system, but rather that the system is rotten to the core and merely shows us the side it wants us to see in order to keep raising money.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa38...01/ai_n17180337

C'mon, who with a sane mind would make this comparrison as a moral equivilent:

 

Which is why I find it so funny you suggest 200 should be radiated.

Which is why I find it so funny you suggest 200 should be radiated.

I am sure we could find alot more than 200 that we could do without. And while we were at it, we could grab a bunch of people from the Humane Society of the United States, which actually has nothign to do with any of the local Humane Societies in the country, but is almost a clone of PETA, just with a better name.

I am sure we could find alot more than 200 that we could do without. And while we were at it, we could grab a bunch of people from the Humane Society of the United States, which actually has nothign to do with any of the local Humane Societies in the country, but is almost a clone of PETA, just with a better name.

And we could find the dog fighters, cultists, and other assorted torturers of animals. I guess it becomes which side you want to be on dog.

Why are they after FlasoxxJim's pants?

Why are they after FlasoxxJim's pants?

 

I saw you'd posted in here and I said, "I'm sure he's posting a clip from Joe's Apartment in here."

 

You disappoint me every single day.

I saw you'd posted in here and I said, "I'm sure he's posting a clip from Joe's Apartment in here."

 

You disappoint me every single day.

 

 

I was going for "myth busters go after BIG ONE" .... get it...they're busting the myth about Jim having a big one...in his pants.

 

 

you know, it's just not as funny when you have to explain it.

I was going for "myth busters go after BIG ONE" .... get it...they're busting the myth about Jim having a big one...in his pants.

you know, it's just not as funny when you have to explain it.

Now, see I thought you were going for a joke about how Jim's pants are a form of toxic radiation.

I was going for "myth busters go after BIG ONE" .... get it...they're busting the myth about Jim having a big one...in his pants.

you know, it's just not as funny when you have to explain it.

 

No no, I got it -- I'm just expressing continued disappointment when you don't use YouTube.

Those cockroaches are toast.

I was going for "myth busters go after BIG ONE" .... get it...they're busting the myth about Jim having a big one...in his pants.

 

 

you know, it's just not as funny when you have to explain it.

Maybe penis jokes do fail . . .

Maybe penis jokes do fail . . .

For only one person, they do.

Now, see I thought you were going for a joke about how Jim's pants are a form of toxic radiation.

 

That is question for whomever does the laundry...

No no, I got it -- I'm just expressing continued disappointment when you don't use YouTube.

 

 

what are you gay?

Maybe penis jokes do fail . . .

 

 

that's the gregory pratt clause...

that's the gregory pratt clause...

 

That's a different U-Tube