MadSci Network: General Biology |
What causes the shell of a cockroach to be resistant to radiation?
The cockroach's shell is made of chitin, a complex polysaccharide that is also found in the shells of crabs, and lobsters. Such material will stop one type of radiation, called alpha rays, but not others.Cockroaches are not totally resistant to radiation any more than anything else is, but their systems are robust enough to handle a
I am sorry I can't offer lots of information sources, but the site I linked to above came up in a Yahoo search for "cockroach" and "radiation".
Dan Berger | |
Bluffton College | |
http://cs.bluffton.edu/~berger |
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on General Biology.