• Question: how do cockroaches survive nukelear bombs?

    Asked by trolololol to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 27 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by coolragz.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Cockroaches do have an advantage over most other animals when it comes radiation.
      Scientists measure radiation exposure in “rems,” a measure of the damage radiation causes to human tissue. Humans can withstand 5 rems safely. Exposure to 800 rems would be deadly for us. German cockroaches can withstand up to 105,000 rems. The thing is, a nuclear explosion doesn’t just create radiation, it creates a phenomenal amount of heat. At the centre of the explosion the temperature is over 10 million degrees. Even 50 meters away from the epicenter of the blast, temperatures would reach about 10,000 degrees. Nothing survives that.

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Cockroackes can withstand the after effects of a nuclear bomb, but not the bomb itself. They are very resilliant to many types of radiation, but like everything else, they will cook long before the radiation cause them any damage.

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