I've had this odd running discussion yesterday and today with a total stranger who decided to email me. Apparently, a post from many moons ago was compelling enough to motivate this action. That's fine with me--however, the post she picked is not one of my fondest memories. So now I've got cockroaches running through my mind (which is much better than running across my floor). Being ever curious about stupid things, I've been doing random reading on cockroaches, aided by Google Scholar. (Google does everything so well.) Who would have guessed that so many people were interested in cockroaches! It turns out that cockroaches are pretty amazing and complex creatures: the campaniform sensilla on their legs serve as pressure sensors to monitor strain on their legs; muscles act as energy absorbers to increase control. I've browsed through articles from varied sources and here are a few of the ones that I actually bothered to read:

• Moran DT, et al. The fine structure of cockroach campaniform sensilla. The Journal of Cell Biology (1971) 48, 155-173
• Skordos A, et al. A novel strain sensor based on the campaniform sensillum of insects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (2002) 360, 239-253
• Full RJ, et al. Energy absorption during running by leg muscles in a cockroach. The Journal of Experimental Biology (1998) 201, 997-1012

All very interesting stuff, I must say, but I don't think I could ever do any of that experimentation. And, no, my hesitation has absolutely nothing to do with compunctions over animal testing, as hard as that is to believe.