Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. My friends' 3-year-old son, Will, asks, "Do cockroaches have a penis?" This turns out
to be a surprisingly difficult question to answer.
First off, most basic sources will just try to give you some fluffy answer about how to tell a boy cockroach from a girl cockroach, which doesn't have anything to do with penises (or lack thereof) at all. In fact, apparently, the easiest way to sex your cockroach is to count the number of of segments on the underside of its abdomen, according to roach expert Joseph Kunkel, a biology professor at the University of Mass., Amherst. Girls have more segments. Boys have fewer
Second, there appears to have been a lot more research done on female cockroach reproductive anatomy. And for good reason: It is more noticeably freaky. Female cockroaches carry their fertilized eggs around in these pod-like sacks called ootheca. Some cockroaches will tote the ootheca around attached to their bodies until the babies hatch. Other species, however, simply drop the ootheca off in some hidden corner, where the babies can incubate safely while you beat their mothers to death with a shoe. Stumble upon enough ootheca in the basement, and its liable to be the first thing you take to the lab.
But, while useful, this information does not answer the young man's question. For that, I had to turn to Cockroaches, a 2007 book by William J. Bell, Louis Marcus Roth, Christine A. Nalepa, and (yes) Edward O. Wilson. Their description of the male cockroach junk helpfully explained why I'd been getting so much confusing (and conflicting) information from other sources. To wit:
A number of intromittent structures in the male cockroach have been called a penis … Although these structures may be associated with the ejaculatory duct … penis-like organs function in some capacity other than to convey sperm directly
So there you have it. Cockroaches: They have no penis. But they do have a lot of things that are frequently called a "penis". Many of these bits and pieces seem to actually be used for cockblocking, so to speak. Let me explain. Instead of the familiar-to-us method of copulation, male cockroaches produce a hard, little packet full of sperm, called a spermatophore, which they transfer into their favorite gal. But, unless it's her first time around the block, there's a decent chance that somebody else's spermatophore is already in there. A male cockroach has a better chance of passing on his genes if he can get rid of the competing sperm. Whether hooked, whip-like, barbed or spiny, those not!penis structures are likely used by male cockroaches to clear out rival spermatophores, according to the august authors of Cockroaches, the book.
Beach-bunny cockroaches provided by kthypryn.
Scientists finally discover why some poop floats and other sinks
When you poop, why do some feces float while others sink to the bottom of the toilet bowl? Researchers from the esteemed Mayo Clinic have just published a scientific paper answering this question. Apparently it was long thought that the secret was the amount of fat inside the particular sample. Nope! In the 1970s, scientists… READ THE RESTThe fascinating, deadly pufferfish
Check out these cool photos of a pufferfish skeleton at Deep Sea News. Deep Sea News explains: What you are looking at are the spines of pufferfish, composed of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite, protein(collagen), and water—the same materials as scales. Indeed, these spines are just modified scales. And like other scales, these spines originate during development, from the mesoderm layer of the dermis or… READ THE REST50 inaccurate, misleading, misused, ambiguous, and logically confused psychological terms
If you ever read me or any other writer use one of these fifty terms, it's fair to suspect we're lazy, confused, or up to no good. Some are worse than others: the outright pseudoscience of "a gene for" puts it right up top, for example, as something to be burned down whenever you find… READ THE RESTGet a $250 Restaurant.com E-Gift Card for $35 with this early Black Friday markdown
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. 'Tis the season to show gratitude to friends, family, good times, and the gifts Mother Earth has graciously brought to our tables. (TYSM to her, even though humans have been super ungrateful… READ THE RESTKeep your real phone number private for $25 with Hushed
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Nowadays, keeping our personal information safe is more important than ever. A private phone line from Hushed can hide your actual phone number when signing up for newsletters, online dating, or whenever you need… READ THE RESTSave 85% off this gorgeous cashmere shawl with this early Black Friday deal
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. The holidays are around the corner, and the holidays are a time to show gratitude to others. We're thankful for you this time of year, so we're showing our appreciation by… READ THE REST