Alien54's Journal: 'Mythbusters' to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth

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. The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters are at the Hanford nuclear reservation this week to get to the bottom of the nuclear survival myth. The experiment required 200 cockroaches from a scientific supply company. 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. The show is expected to air in about 4 months.