Originally published at: Cockroach wins battle with hydraulic press | Boing Boing
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No, thank you 
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I can’t watch that video because ick–severe ick.
But, there’s some catch here, right? 900x its own body weight? I’ve seen those hydraulic presses explode metal objects, there’s no way something biological withstands that, right?
Someone help me sleep better at night, please.
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Give these guys a try.
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A quick lookup online estimates the American cockroach at 14-15 grams. 900x its body weight would be 13,500 grams, or just shy of 20lbs.
The video shows the hydraulic press compressing maybe a quarter to half the roach’s body volume, so more a glancing blow than a concerted effort to snuff the beast.
In short, it could survive a hit from a rolled up newspaper, but will be a slimy mess on the bottom of your shoe. It can take a beating, but you can rest assured it isn’t invulnerable.
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Yeah, that was the exact moment I stopped the video and said, “Nope, noooo, no, no, noooooope!”
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Basically, their exoskeleton isn’t made of one solid piece. It’s segmented and flexible. It’s why they can squeeze through tiny cracks and why they can survive a pretty violent whack with a shoe. Not a good stomp, though.
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Quite. Now, on the other hand, a shrunken down nuclear-powered submarine crewed by experts…
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Insects are marvellous creatures.
I put a deer tick to question* by throwing it in the microwave for a minute.
Surprisingly- was still alive.
These things live through -40C in the winter (in a kind of stasis) and come raring back to life to suck blood and spread disease. So I don’t feel bad about the experiment…
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Absolutely, Raquel Welch at any size is nowhere near as terrifying as miniaturised robot cockroaches crawling through my pipes.
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Researchers always say things like this when getting funding, and then the eventual product ends up being something like “Spy-bot 9000” that’s sold to law enforcement/military organizations to squeeze under people’s doors…
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When I saw the headline, I thought “there’s no way a cockroach can survive that amount of pressure”.
There’s pressure and there’s pressure, I guess.
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That’s because the researchers aren’t the one’s deciding what gets made and sold.
Research scientists generally want to build a better world and have no more say than anyone else that capitalism decides what is done with the results of the research
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Flee, Flea!
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…and that’s how I started living my life seeking after stuff in John Carpenter movies (esp. the one with a super Mojito Casino in a jar, with Alice Cooper cameos,) but also huffing bugkiller. See? Yeah I’m not looking forward to hearing those lines.
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