Cockroaches... learn to like them, they might help us

In one of my previous post on Biodiversity I was mentioning the importance of all living organisms even those you do not particularly appreciate. It is not only because nature is wonderful and beautiful - we are not in the world of Barbie, but also because of their potential usefulness for us. I mentionned the interest in term of feeding, material for habitats, heating and pharmaceutical use.

I even mentioned mold and spiders as interesting species even if they are not necessarily the most popular living organisms!

At least myself I am not a special fan of spiders. Yes I know they are smaller and more scared by us than us by them but if I can stay a bit away from them I definitely would. I have seen the development of new therapies to fight your phobia using virtual reality (lots of phobia not only for aracnophobia, the virtual reality medical center for instance propose therapy for 16 different fears including fear of flying, fear of thunderstorm...) . If you have a fear of heights, one will give you special glasses to wear and you will have to walk along a virtual cliff for instance... I can easily imagine that adaptation for spiders... you could be in a virtual fear factor episode and have your head in a plastic box full of my eight legs friends... Hmmm, nope not sure I will do this treatment any time soon.

And for the people having katsaridaphobia you can imagine the same episode with cockroaches... or not. You can actually see below an example of Augmented Reality experience with cockroaches, and for more information I would suggest you to read the article from Thoughts of a Neo-academic.

Well why should we fight our fears? For spiders, you know -as you are a regular reader, that their venoms are studied to be used in a couple of disease treatments.

And the cockroaches?

A recent study (results released beginning of September by the University of Nottingham) is very optimistic on the possibility of finding new antibiotics within cockroach brains. "The research has identified up to nine different molecules in the insect tissues that were toxic to bacteria."

And why that? Mr Lee is explaining it in a very simple and clear manner: “Insects often live in unsanitary and unhygienic environments where they encounter many different types of bacteria. It is therefore logical that they have developed ways of protecting themselves against micro-organisms.”

I thought another reason was the strenght of the cockroaches. I have been told at different times that if there was a nuclear bomb, cockroaches would be the bugs the most likely to survive it. If you too are convinced about this, I would recommend to have a look at this article by Daniel Riley in Slate Magazine. He is highlighting some extrapolations made in the past and where our preconcieved ideas are coming from. I wish M. Riley could as well explained to me with rationality and as clearly as he was in his article why I am afraid of these eight legs animals and why I should not. It would be great to read the article and to avoid any augmented reality therapy or worst, the old version, the exposure therapy in which nothing is virtual! Imagine...

Last level of exposure therapy to fight aracnophobia!

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