Even the worst zombie movies are clear on one point: a zombie dies when you destroy its head. But a cockroach can live for weeks without its head. How is that possible?
Cockroaches are hardy beasts. They live through urbanization. They live through nuclear war. And it seems they even live through being decapitated. What makes them tougher than zombies, the toughest monsters ever created in movies? Let's start with decapitation.
One of the reasons why decapitation is pretty much always a career-ending injury in humans is the sheer loss of fluids involved. You can't take off someone's head without hacking through some very necessary arteries. The blood loss alone will kill a person. A cockroach doesn't have it so hard. Their equivalent of blood doesn't flow through high-pressure arteries. It seems through their body, and so they don't pump out all their blood and die quickly. They have enough time to seal off the wounds. They also don't breathe through the head and their blood doesn't circulate oxygen.
Yes, scientists have determined that cockroaches can live without heads. They also found that heads can live without cockroaches. When scientists decapitated the roaches, they noticed that the heads lived for hours. Because scientists are sick, they noticed that refrigerated heads that were given nutrient solutions lasted even longer.
Will crossing roaches with zombies finally be the thing that wipes us out? Or will it just make a great Syfy movie? You be the judge.
~http://io9.com/
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