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General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: omid on 29/08/2009 10:24:13

Title: Surprising but very intresting
Post by: omid on 29/08/2009 10:24:13

Hey guys,
Today I am going to share some information based on nuclear weapon, some of you might already know about this but those who don't may find it very interesting and surprising.
Few years back Pakistan tested their nuclear weapon (atom bomb)in a country side area called Chaghi (I think [:-\]). Once the blast took place it simply destroyed everything in the whole town as expected. Even today the children in the town are born with disabilities because the effect of the blast is still there.
But in the mean time they say that when the blast took place and everything was vanished some cockroaches were seen coming out of the earth. And then finally they realised that atom bomb can't kill the cockroaches.
So my question is that how come nuclear power destroy everything but not cockroaches? Can any one explain please and also can everyone please rate this information on the scale of 10 that how intresting did you find it? 1 is lowest and 10 is highest.  [;)] 

Title: Surprising but very intresting
Post by: JimBob on 29/08/2009 11:24:34

I am not surprised - Cockroaches are very resilient. And it is true

Cockroaches and "The Bomb"
(This article was published originally on 12/13/1996)

by Donald Lewis, Department of Entomology

"You've probably heard the story about cockroaches surviving a nuclear war: we die but they live! This is supposed to make you feel better when you have trouble getting rid of these critters.

"So, the real truth: radiologists have found that humans can safely withstand a one-time exposure of 5 rems (A "rem" is the dosage of radiation that will cause a specific, measured amount of injury to human tissue). A lethal dose is 800 rems or more (people are exposed to about 16 rems during their lifetime).

"Insect researchers have found that cockroaches can tolerate a much higher dose -- really higher! The lethal dose for the American cockroach is 67,500 rems and for the German cockroach it is between 90,000 and 105,000 rems (yikes!). In truth the amount of radiation that cockroaches can withstand is equivalent to that of a thermonuclear explosion. So, show a little respect the next time your chasing one through the kitchen with a spray can in your hand!"

Reprinted from the Urban Pest Control Research Center Newsletter, April 8, 1996. By Bill Robinson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Entomology

Title: Surprising but very intresting
Post by: JnA on 29/08/2009 12:12:56

I, for one, welcome our new Cockroach overlords...

Title: Surprising but very intresting
Post by: LeeE on 29/08/2009 17:50:37

The nuclear tests carried out at Pakistan's Chagai test site were all underground tests.  The test shot bores were actually drilled into and beneath a granite mountain and did not take place on the surface.  Chagai, which is more than 35 miles away from the test site, wasn't destroyed in the tests, although the walls of some buildings closer to the test site did develop quite large cracks.

There seem to have been just six test shots at the Chagai test site, with a total yield of about 52 kilotons (compared with the hundreds of test shots carried out at the U.S. Nevada Test Site, the earlier ones of which being above ground and uncontained) and afaik, there was no significant release of fallout to the atmosphere in the Chagai tests.

Insects were known to be more resistant to radiation exposure than humans long before the Chagai tests; they were specifically tested in the early U.S. tests (and probably in the U.S.S.R. tests too).  One of the Mythbusters 'experiments' showed that cockroaches were not the most resistant insects to radiation exposure, and by quite a long way too, and that other species of insect survived much better (sorry - I can't remember what the other species were), so it's a bit odd that the story seems to fixate on cockroaches when in practice, any number of other insects would have been just as likely to have crawled 'out of the earth'.

All in all, this story seems to be based more upon myth that fact.

Title: Surprising but very intresting
Post by: Variola on 30/08/2009 11:20:16

I have to say, that as a Pox I am more impressed by Deinococcus Radiodurans,or Conan the Bacterium.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans)

Quote

D. radiodurans is capable of withstanding an instantaneous dose of up to 5,000 Gy of ionizing radiation with no loss of viability, and an instantaneous dose of up to 15,000 Gy with 37% viability. A dose of 5,000 Gy is estimated to introduce several hundred complete breaks into the organism's DNA. For comparison, 10 Gy can kill a human, over 4000 to kill the radiation-resistant tardigrade, and 60 Gy will kill E. coli. (A chest X-ray or Apollo mission involves about 1 milligray).

It can also withstand dehydration, cold, vacuum and acid.

Impressive huh?  [:)]