Can a Cockroach Survive a Nuclear Blast?

A cockroach can survive a nuclear blast, but would it survive the heat and radiation that would kill most humans? It’s possible. Twenty percent of cockroaches can survive high levels of radiation from the atom bomb, and they’ve been found as far as 1000 feet from the Hiroshima atom bomb. The cockroach is also able to survive up to a month without food, and it can survive 2 weeks with its head severed.

Cockroaches’ resistance to radiation is much higher than that of humans, making them more resilient to radiation than humans. Because of this, they’re able to survive a nuclear explosion more easily. A nuclear explosion has a radial range of nine to eighteen miles, and cockroaches within that radius can suffer severe burns and radiation poisoning. If a cockroach is outside of the blast radius, however, it could be crushed or killed by a collapsed building.

In a study conducted by the Discovery Channel, scientists exposed German cockroaches to a series of radiation levels. These included 1,000 radon units of the Cobalt-60 metal, which is enough to kill a person in ten minutes. They then exposed the animals to 10,000 and 100,000 rads of radiation, which is about as much as the Hiroshima bomb emitted.

There is some evidence to support the idea that cockroaches can survive a nuclear explosion, though the exact mechanisms are not known. In fact, a cockroach can survive radiation up to nine times the dose of radiation in a human.

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