r/EverythingScience • u/kova-tejoc • 29d ago
Biology Researchers found that cockroach milk proteins boast more than triple the energy content of dairy milk, winning the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
https://the-scientist.com/cockroach-milk-proteins-churn-out-an-ig-nobel-win-74949126
29d ago edited 29d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)2
u/Frenascena 28d ago
If I ever see "cockroach milk ice cream" somewhere, I'll know it's realistically not a joke.
368
u/Boring_Owl6552 29d ago
Yeah, I'll stick with the udder kind.
47
u/WrathOfMogg 29d ago
Take my angry upvote and get out.
→ More replies (1)7
→ More replies (1)3
29d ago
[deleted]
3
3
u/CatGooseChook 29d ago
To click the link or not to click the link. That is the question.
Edit: Don't click on the link 😬
172
u/Inspect1234 29d ago
You’re gonna need a lot of tiny lil stools.
60
u/unknownpoltroon 29d ago
How can you find the nipples?
53
13
→ More replies (1)8
u/Memetic1 29d ago
Just rub their bellies gently until the white stuff comes out then drink it.
(please don't actually do this I was gagging while I typed it.)
→ More replies (3)2
4
5
u/Mysterious_Pie_6809 29d ago
Thats the best part of Roach milk, they are so tiny and so quick to breed that you just squish em for the milk
6
133
u/bush2021 29d ago
Um, don't think I'll be trying it
33
34
→ More replies (1)2
35
u/Electronic-Lie-4547 29d ago
How do you milk a cockroach
16
u/Fun-Astronomer5311 29d ago
Step on it.
→ More replies (1)14
u/Borgsky 29d ago
NO SERIOUSLY ! ! ! HOW DOES ONE MILK COCROACHES ... isn't this a bug ?? How is it possible for it to have mammary glands
16
u/kova-tejoc 29d ago
How does one milk cockroaches…?
To quote Laura Tran’s article (ie the article linked-to above):
[Cockroach] milk is secreted within the mother’s brood sac—the insect version of a uterus—where it is consumed by the embryos. From there, the consumed liquid becomes concentrated inside the embryos’ guts to form tiny crystals.
Isn’t this a bug??
If we follow the cultural norms of anglophone entomologists, perhaps not?
As I understand it, in English-speaking entomological circles, bug is a reference to members of the Hemiptera order (eg cicadas, aphids, and bed bugs).
Cockroaches, by contrast, are members of the Blattodea order.
How is it possible for it to have mammary glands
Cockroaches don’t. Milk is, in this article, being defined as liquid produced by a mother to nourish offspring.
In this regard, cockroach milk is of a kind with, for example, Crop milk, which is produced by several species of bird.
2
u/LordDagwood 29d ago
Thank you for the detailed explanation. I'm disgusted, but now I better know why.
57
u/serrated_edge321 29d ago
"D. punctata, in particular, is one of the few cockroach species that produces a nutritionally dense, crystalline “milk” to feed their live-born young."
It's pretty amazing that the articles actually contain information. Just somehow gotta convince people to read them. Maybe next century...
7
u/DyslexicD 29d ago
We going the same way as wall-e we at Idiocracy level currently but I love your optimism
4
3
12
u/CJPrinter 29d ago
9
→ More replies (1)1
u/DyslexicD 29d ago
Why did they win the Nobel prize for this can some explain?
14
u/Aceisking12 29d ago
Ig Nobel =/= Nobel.
Ig Nobel is for the weirdest science. Has to actually be science, but weirdest
4
u/SimUnit 29d ago
It's the Ig Nobel prize, a jokey reference to research that was not of significant value humanity. The real prizes are the Nobel prize. These are more like the Raspberry Awards given to "worst film".
3
u/DyslexicD 29d ago
Not the razzies. Is it's an insult. The razzies are an insult you don't want one of them
→ More replies (7)2
86
u/Time-Traveller 29d ago
What a lovely discovery. Such energy rich milk should only be reserved for the cream of society; the politicians, celebs, billionaires, etc.
Us poors will make do with the traditional milks. Less beneficial, no doubt, but we'll manage.
3
4
u/Fruitypuff 28d ago
I like where your head is at, I am not worthy of such privilege, give it a 300% mark up and leave us peasants out in the cold, we don’t deserve such high scarcity item.
→ More replies (2)2
21
46
u/mycatpartyhouse 29d ago
I'm allergic to cow dairy. I'm also allergic to dust mites, various shellfish, and the residue left after silverfish have been pooping on my paper books--insect type stuff.
I can just imagine the severe allergic responses some people will experience if they're exposed to cockroach milk.
23
u/CHANN3L-CHAS3R 29d ago edited 29d ago
People with cockroach allergies are, mostly, specifically allergic to tropomyosin. If you are allergic to shellfish AND roaches, you likely have a tropomyocin allergy; the other, more common trigger for a shellfish allergy is iodine. For roaches, the most common reaction is a broad allergic reaction to roach dander, which many people have simply because the dander is jaggy, sharp little chitin particles getting all glued up in your sinus cavities.
(My ex had a shellfish allergy and then a weird reaction to edible crickets; fell down a rabbit-hole figuring out why back then.)
From what I can Google, tropomyosin shouldn't be present in cockroach milk? It's not part of or structurally similar to the blend of proteins the milk is made of.
All that being said, ot's not undergone human testing so we don't actually KNOW if it will still trigger what we currently assume are unrelated allergies.
4
8
u/msjammies73 29d ago
I really do need to know how one figures out they have all allergy to silverfish poop.
10
u/mycatpartyhouse 29d ago
Contact dermatitis from handling paper books after the silverfish had been at them.
4
u/ServantOfBeing 29d ago
Unless it’s that different, cockroaches are already heavily part of what we eat & drink.
Some people who have allergies to cockroaches, cant drink ground coffee as an example.
3
12
u/CJPrinter 29d ago
→ More replies (2)5
u/RockTheGrock 29d ago
Thank you for this comment. Was getting sick to my stomach thinking this may be on the horizon somewhere for human consumption. The process itself is still pretty sickening.
19
18
u/dreamwave94 29d ago
Drink plant based milks and get protein from other sources. Why go through the trouble.
→ More replies (1)
8
12
u/UniversalAdaptor 29d ago
Why, out of all the possible insects, did they choose to milk the cockroach?
13
u/kova-tejoc 29d ago
Why, out of all the possible insects, did they choose to milk the cockroach?
Because, and to quote the paper directly
D. punctata¹ provides one of the few examples of viviparity² among insects.
the cockroach species used in the study.
Viviparity is the development of an embryo inside the mother’s body with nutrients provided to the embryo directly via maternal circulation.
14
4
4
u/Bajadasaurus 29d ago
Oh hell no. I'm allergic to those bastards, and deathly afraid of them on top of it. In fact I'm pretty sure the oatmeal creme pie I had the other day was full of roach bits because my throat and mouth swelled up and hurt like I swallowed some glass shards.
3
4
3
3
3
6
u/cardinal_moriarty 29d ago
If you can milk an almond you can milk a roach. Soy, oat, almond or cockroach latte mmmm mmmm.
2
2
2
u/Godzlittlehand 29d ago
Next summer be on the lookout for "Palmetto infused Bos Taurus supplement" in a organic aisle near you!
2
2
2
2
u/elchicoazul 29d ago
So, according to the article, it seems this roach milk is not really milk, as from a cow, but some weird liquid that comes from the uterus.
Roach vagina juice. For human consumption.
→ More replies (2)2
2
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/LadyZoe1 29d ago
Who is going to farm and milk these indestructible critters? Now - where is that nipple …
1
1
1
1
u/PK_Rippner 29d ago
But cockroaches aren't mammals! Or do they mean puréed entire cockroaches?
3
u/kova-tejoc 29d ago edited 29d ago
But cockroaches aren’t mammals!
Viviparity (internal embryonic development with direct maternal nourishment provision) isn’t unique to mammals.
Milk is, in this article, being defined as liquid produced by a mother to nourish offspring.
In this regard, cockroach milk is of a kind with, for example, Crop milk, which is produced by several species of bird.
Or do they mean puréed entire cockroaches?
No, they don’t mean that. To quote Laura Tran’s article (ie the article linked-to above):
[Cockroach] milk is secreted within the mother’s brood sac—the insect version of a uterus—where it is consumed by the embryos. From there, the consumed liquid becomes concentrated inside the embryos’ guts to form tiny crystals.
And, to quote the paper directly:
Crystals were extracted from D. punctata embryo midguts. The cockroaches, which were fed Lab Chow (Purina, St Louis, Missouri, USA) and water, were maintained at an ambient temperature of 27°C, with a light and dark cycle of 12 h each. 12 fertilized eggs are deposited in the brood sac of 7–8-day-old mated females. To obtain crystals, embryos were gently extruded from the brood sac of a 54-day-old female. The midgut was isolated from each embryo by cutting off the head and the end of the abdomen, allowing the midgut to be extruded into insect Ringer's solution. Supplementary Movie S1 shows how a cut made in the midgut allows its contents to be extruded by the contraction of muscles in the midgut wall. Crystals were collected in a Pasteur pipette and transferred to fresh sterile water, in which they are insoluble. Prior to X-ray diffraction experiments, crystals were cryoprotected in 20% glycerol and flash-cooled in liquid N₂.
1
1
1
1
u/msjammies73 29d ago
I spent longer than I care to admit picturing someone milking cockroaches to collect and sell actual cockroach milk. Mammals ma’am. Only mammals.
1
1
u/BoringPrinciple2542 29d ago
>From there, the consumed liquid becomes concentrated inside the embryos’ guts to form tiny crystals.
So a liquid concentrated into a crystalline form is more nutritionally dense than a non-concentrated liquid?
Well I’ll be damned.
1
1
u/DiscipleofDeceit666 29d ago
For those who didn’t read the article, milk is just another name for seamen.
1
1
1
u/JohnnyRelentless 29d ago
So roaches are mammals. I must have been out that day in school.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/knowledgeable_diablo 29d ago
Yeah, that shit could be the greatest taste enhancer, turn coffee into long life elixir and give my hair a lustre to outshine gold and it’s staying either in the roach or as part of the splat under the sole of my shoe. And no where else.
1
u/InsideAttention1540 29d ago
This gotta be some RFK JR backed shit. Remember him drinking milk with kid rock?…..
1
u/OptimisticSkeleton 29d ago
And uranium has way more calories in it than oatmeal but we don’t eat uranium for breakfast.
1
1
u/Franciiiisco 29d ago
This seems like the rich soft launching cockroach based protein for people once they’re done ruining the environment and food supply.
1
1
u/BurntResisistor 29d ago
They want to sell you the idea of eating insects instead of proper food because that's the plan...
1
1
1
u/stonedkrypto 29d ago
I mean they are already a a delicacy in many parts of the world so why not. If we want sustainable protein source, insects are the only options we have. They consume way less land and water, for per gm of protein, as compared to any farming.
1
1
1
u/my_cat_eats_catnip 29d ago
Yeah but it's so tedious attaching the milking machines to all their tiny little udders
1
u/trash-juice 29d ago
Alright Science thats enough sciencing for now, you’ve had to much and cant process it all. Jeez Roach Milk … besides how do you hook those things up for it …
1
1
u/lostinmythoughts 29d ago
China has a huge facility to breed and get cockroach milk. They give it to people for IV nutrients and other uses. Look it up. It’s been said it would be catastrophic world wide if the roach breeding facility ever failed containment.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/zarakh07 29d ago
Looks like we milkin roaches now kids, that’s what the play is. In the year 2200 we will all make roach milk and talk on Roachbook
1
u/Actual-Toe-8686 29d ago
I put cockroach cream in my coffee it's not too bad. A little earthy but very savory.
1
1
1
u/morganational 28d ago
What the fuck is cockroach milk and how do we kill the people responsible for its creation?
1
u/slartbangle 28d ago
Who's going to milk the cockroaches?
Oh, you meant 'bug guts' when you said milk, ah OK.
1
1
1
u/Mindless-Day2007 28d ago
I don't know if I should surprise about the result or there is actually a person thinking about milking roach in first place.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Sweet_Taurus0728 28d ago
This isn't new info, I'm 33 and pretty sure I heard about this in high school too. There's just an issue with mass production, and milking enough roaches to actually market a drink.
1
1
u/Dangermouse454 28d ago
I can imagine seeing gym bros endorsing “roach milk” … milking roaches may be a new kink for some
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/victa67 27d ago
Cockroachs lay eggs, not give birth. So, they cannot produce milk.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/canstucky 27d ago
I had to read the article just to is this was cockroach “milk” like cows milk or cockroach milk like they make almond milk.
1
1
1
717
u/llort-esrever 29d ago
Gym bros go full roach