Cockroaches at Their Best at Night 98
Science_afficionado writes "A new study has found that cockroaches are morons in the morning and geniuses in the evening in terms of their learning capacity. Previous studies suggest that the learning capacity of both people and rats are also affected by their internal biological clocks. But the effect is far more dramatic in cockroaches and it is the first time it has been found in insects. And, no, the researchers didn't try giving their cockroaches a sip of coffee to see if it revived them!"
Another checklist... (Score:5, Funny)
Tell me about it (Score:5, Funny)
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Responding on
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CC.
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I don't speak (or read) German, but I wish I did. That sentence sounds angry and dirty, and I don't even know what it means! Gotta be the best language in the world for cursing.
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As for being the best language for cursing: keep thinking that way if it helps you picking up a second language. Honestly. I thought the same way about Japanese and it motivated me to learn it, only to understand that cursing makes you sound like an imbecile, like in any other language. It just doesn't matter
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I actually had more in mind of German being the best language to curse at non-German speaking people. Maybe it is just me, but it is a harsh sounding language, which lends itself well to cursing. And for some reason, I like the idea of cursing people in a language they don't understand.
free advice for moderators (Score:2)
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what does this mean? (Score:5, Funny)
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HAH!! I doubt you could even get a cockroach to stoop so low as to working for our Uncle Sammy in DC!! Cockroaches have higher standards!
Silly govt. departments...
Whatever. Not sure why civil servants get such a bad rap. Next time your you send a letter across the country for less than a dollar, read an SEC filing, fly in an airplane, drive on a highway, eat meat or produce without food poisoning, surf the internet, use GPS, drink TANG, etc...; thank a civil servant.
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Maybe you should try to get one too!
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Who the f**k sponsors those studies (Score:1)
How do you learn if I wake you up at 3 am in the morning?
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From TFA
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Presumably they're interested in the effect of the circadian system on memory aquisition and retrival, which is certainly worth studying and probably simailar in all animals, and its far easier to do initial work on insects and then scale it up to mammals.
There might also be direct benefits to understanding cockroach behaviour, since they are a major public health risk in some parts of the world.
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So, what would you do with liquid on the ground where you are? Drink it? Urine is not that dangerous either generally, at least not compared to just about any other bodily excretion, and loads of other things that aren't. And anyway, go out in London in the evening and you'll get the same effect... I'm doing that tomorrow - I'll be sure to note that it's just like being in Manila when I step over a puddle of piss.
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Wait...wait.. I'm confused. Are we talking about politicians here?
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No idea (Score:5, Funny)
"An interesting question is why the animal would not want to learn at that particular time of day. We have no idea."
The interview was conducted during the day. I leave you with your own conclusions on the similarity between cockroaches and some people.
"Genius"?! (Score:2, Insightful)
These are cockroaches we're talking about here, folks. Calling them "genius" at any time of the day is stretching it just a little, yes?
Of course, the same could most likely be said of the person who came to mind when you read the summary, too....
Re:"Genius"?! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd also like to remind everyone that a finding doesn't have any weight until it's been independently verified by a couple other labs.
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Now excuse me, I have some research to finish as to whether bears prefer forests or shopping malls for their biological functions.
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Cue in the "LEAVE COCKROACHES ALONE! They're just insects! You gotta be happy they learn at night you bastards!" jokes.
eh? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think a cockroach has enough theory of mind to 'desire' to learn. And in any case there's no practical difference between desire to learn and ability to learn if predicting cockroach behaviour is the outcome. Either it will learn or it wont.
With respect to other influences, I'm sure a journal like PNAS wouldn't take the research if it had fatal flaws. They're quite fussy.
Also, I don't see why a study needs to be replicated before it has any weight. Unless you think there are significant flaws
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Duh (Score:1, Redundant)
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Others are just plain morons (Score:4, Funny)
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Last week, I saw a huge butterfly try to kill itself by attempting to become entangled in the web of a much smaller spider. It was like watching someone trying to commit suicide by driving a Mack truck through a mobile home. Luckily, the spider managed to escape the flailing butterfly, but the web did not have a good day.
Hangover? (Score:3, Funny)
Learning is an outdated concept (Score:1)
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So let me see if I understand you: Science has abandoned the concept of learning because it doesn't adequately explain learning?
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Change of name? (Score:3, Funny)
Almost Obvious (Score:3)
Anyone who has had to deal with cockroach buildups in an apartment or house would know that in order to prevent them from coming to your kitchen is to wipe it down really well, because once they start coming, it's damn near impossible to stop them. Once they find a hint of food in a certain location, they will continue to look for it in the same location...
Just sayin'.
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OTOH boric acid is your friend.
Curious... (Score:5, Funny)
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The future of web publishing (Score:1)
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Flash wasn't even installed on the computer I'm using right now, so I spent about thirty seconds looking for a "Go Straight to Article" link before realizing there wasn't one.
If you do get to the final article, though, there's a "Tell us what you think of our new look!" link. Amusingly, there's a html/txt version, but t
HTML version here (Score:1)
Here's the html version, with pretty pictures.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/text/index.php?action=view_section&id=1333&story_id=320 [vanderbilt.edu]
I did look for other comments mentioning HTML or text but to my astonishment it appears no one bothered to post this all day.
Sounds like some managers I know (Score:2)
The researchers also found (Score:3, Funny)
Caffeine Kills Bugs - That's Why Plants Make It (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Caffeine Kills Bugs - That's Why Plants Make It (Score:4, Interesting)
Inquiring minds want to know!
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Funny, I lived in a place once where I had to set my drink in the center of a square made from tape turned sticky-side-up just to go to the bathroom.
The little bastards learned that a stovetop burner would kill them so they started climbing up the wall & onto the ceiling above th
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That is the most horrifying thing I've ever read in my life... I am now going to stock up on RAID and maybe even a shotgun in the event they try and take over.
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what about timezones ? (Score:1)
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Truth is, buggers don't like cold. So for the myth about them shrugging off a nuclear war... Nuclear Winter, baby.
(Obviously, only Scandinavians could survive a nuclear war!)
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Being born in Wales and having grown up in Ontario Canada I'd never seen a cockroach until at 22 I moved to Los Angeles in 1979.
I saw lots there. Boric acid in every crack and crevice seems to kill them BTW and is about as safe as you can get.
I've seen one or two of them in Toronto in old houses and restaurants, but other than that I've seen none. They're not real
can they turn sentient? (Score:2, Insightful)
If there's a nuclear winter, and cockroaches (which are generally said to survive despite radiation) are left in the dark (somewhere), will the darkness help them evolve to the point of being sentient?
Maybe some experiments aka "learning during darkness" should be conducted on ISS. hmm..*wondering about that ep of Justice League when Vandal Savage was the only human left on Earth. Cockroaches evolved and became big. With the red sun (less sunlight), they appeared to be more organised and smarter. Maybe the
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Previous studies? (Score:4, Interesting)
Anybody got pointers on this previous research for humans? That could change my daily schedule...
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Cockroach racing, anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Sanitation in the area was a disaster, there were so many cockroaches in the buildings that many students simply gave up trying to exterminate them and simply accepted them as "pets", going as far as wagering on cockroach races. I don't know if it still exists, but back in those days there was a cheap repellent stick known as Chinese Chalk that was smeared on surfaces, and while it was fresh, supposedly no cockroach would cross the boundary. Racecourses were designed with Chinese Chalk, beers were popped open, wages were placed on the floor, and the festivities began.
Years later, simply mentioning The Bronx can still make ex-alumni shudder.
Aw, what the hell, here's another good cockroach story:
One day, a friend of mine saw to his horror, three cockroaches huddling in his kitchen wall. So the guy approached nervously with a can of Raid and, involuntarily shutting his eyes, blasted 'em for about ten seconds before jumping several feet back. With morbid fascination and never taking his eyes off them, the guy slowly approached the dying, quivering roaches, still attached to the wall. He was just a couple of feet away when two of the roaches, in a final, heroic act of revenge, lunged at him. Screaming bloody murder in a high pitched tone that must've cracked a neighborhood window or two, the guy jerked violently, tripped and fell in a weird position, dislocating his shoulder.
On a happy note, my friend himself tells that story, and has a good laugh while doing so.
I knew it !!! (Score:1)
i *knew* it! (Score:1)
Explains a lot (Score:2)
Pug