3 cockroaches worth $400,000?
Some time ago, according to media reports, the RR auction house in Boston, the United States, announced an auction item - 3 cockroach corpses, and estimated it at $400,000. It is understood that the auction is called "Apollo 11 Program Lunar Soil Experiment", which includes 3 cockroach carcasses, 40 mg of lunar soil taken from the cockroach stomach and 2 boxes of cockroach tissue slices. Just when the RR auction house was clamoring for a price, NASA called off the auction because NASA believed that the ownership of the lot belonged to NASA.
As soon as this news came out, it immediately attracted people's attention and discussion, and many people said: The first time to see cockroaches is so valuable, but the lunar soil experiment should be strict and confidential, why can the auction auction these experimental cockroaches? In addition, some people have asked: there are so many creatures on the earth, why would the solitary choose cockroaches for experiments? Is it because they have a strong vitality? So, what is the truth of the matter? Then again, will cockroaches that eat moon soil be any different from ordinary cockroaches?
Why can cockroaches eat lunar soil?
Before answering the above questions, let's take a brief look at the "Apollo Program" of the United States. The Apollo program was a manned lunar mission conducted by NASA from 1961 to 1972, and it is also the largest lunar exploration program in the United States to date. It is reported that astronauts Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who landed on the moon for the first time, also collected a total of about 22 kilograms of lunar rock and soil samples to bring back to Earth for study after completing a series of lunar explorations. At that time, in order to know whether the soil on the moon was harmful to life on Earth, scientists launched the "Lunar Soil Experiment" program. So, why did cockroaches be chosen as the object of experiments?
In fact, the subjects of this experiment are not only cockroaches. It is reported that NASA assigned about 4.5 pounds of lunar soil to scientists in the laboratory, and the subjects of the experiment ranged from vertebrates to invertebrates, such as grasshoppers, oysters, brown shrimp, German cockroaches and Canadian bottom mackerel, etc., and the reason for choosing these organisms was on the one hand because they were more common, easier to care for and handle; On the other hand, scientists have a deep understanding of these creatures, and if an anomaly occurs, they can also find it at the first time. Among them, Marion Brooks, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, is responsible for studying the reaction of German cockroaches to lunar soil. During the experiment, she raised two groups of German cockroaches, one group ate normal food, and the other group fed food containing lunar soil, so what difference would the cockroaches that ate lunar soil be different?
Does lunar soil cause any harm to cockroaches?
We know that soil on the Moon is very different from soil on Earth. Lunar soil is the residue left by meteorite impacts on the moon, and since there is no erosion of air, water and wind, every grain of dust in the lunar soil has a sharp edge and looks like "broken glass". If it is a normal person eating broken glass, the consequences must be very serious, but after dissecting and observing the analysis, Marion found that the lunar soil did not cause any harm to the German cockroaches, and even they were no different from ordinary cockroaches.
However, after the experiment, Marion did not return the experimental samples to NASA, but kept them at home as a souvenir. It wasn't until before her death that she handed the samples to her daughter. It is worth mentioning that in 2010, Marion's daughter sold the only three remaining cockroaches for $10,000, and then the three cockroaches came to the RR auction house in Boston, USA.
At present, the US RR auction house has cancelled this auction, and whether to return it to NASA is still under consideration. Lunar soil may not be unusual for NASA, but the lunar soil that was eaten into the stomach by cockroaches without any abnormalities is the only one in the world, and it is no wonder that NASA will call off the auction and claim that the ownership of these samples is in their hands. What do you think about that? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.