Cockroach vs. Hydraulic Press: Who Wins? | Deep Look

Do cockroaches -- those daring, disgusting disease vectors -- have anything at all to offer us? Scientists think so. They compressed American roaches with a hydraulic press, subjecting them to the force of 900 times their body weight. Don't worry (or do): They survived! How exactly do they do it?

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DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.

Cockroaches can cause asthma and allergies as they spread their saliva and poop around your home. But scientists think these daring, disgusting disease vectors have something more to offer us than salmonella. American roaches are one of the fastest insects on the planet. They’re also talented athletes, compressing their bodies while scurrying through incredibly tight cracks. The American cockroach can withstand compressive forces totaling over 900 times their body weight! Researchers are using what they’ve learned about roaches to build robots the size of insects, which can squeeze into places humans can’t – like piles of rubble left by major earthquakes or hurricanes. And maybe down the line, much smaller versions of these robots could even enter our bodies to perform life-saving tasks!

---+ Spider legs inspire researchers!

Biomechanist and roboticist Kaushik Jayaram (@JayaramKaushik), who worked with us on our cockroach episode, also finds inspiration in the creepy, crawly spider! Specifically spider joints! Check out his work with spiders and robots in this paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300181

---+ Pesticide resistant roaches?
Professor of Urban Entomology Chow-Yang Lee (@chowyanglee), of the University of California, Riverside, studies many critters who cohabitate with humans. He’s been looking into how certain populations of German roaches (Blattella germanica) consistently evade our pesticides. Read more here: https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/...

---+ Find additional resources and a transcript on KQED Science:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1984261/...

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GIF CHALLENGE WINNERS:

🏆Congratulations🏆 to these 5 fans on our Deep Look Community Tab who came up with the 5 most popular new names for our friend, the American cockroach!

@gabriellasteele727 / @jessehunter362 for "skitter critters"

@avanelletheclockfriend2515 for "Rubbish runners, Scrap skidaddlers, Litter critters, Impervious invertebrates, Tenacious trash tenants

@Weirdomanification for "Dysentery-dispensers"

@ChasingMoonMoths for "Scurry peanuts or speedy Lincoln logs."

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