New research brings out amazing facts about the much-reviled cockroach

The discovery that cockroaches have individual personalities, ranging from bold and sociable to shy and aggressive, is unlikely to change universal opinion on the insect. That the brown, antennaed creature lurking in drains or dark corners may be a shy, retiring sort would probably not deter most humans from chasing it with a broom or bug spray any more than it being an aggressive, extrovert-type would. Of course, the intrepid scientists who conducted an extensive study of cockroach behaviour must be commended for deciding to focus on this much-reviled insect as part of wider research over the last two decades on personalities of invertebrates. But heartwarming discoveries that cockroaches help each other and lead richer lives than we give them credit for will still not change public opinion nor alter their willingness to share their abodes, let alone the planet, with them.

Presumably, even if the average human cannot see the value of acquiring such domain knowledge on cockroaches — apart from further cementing the belief that at least a few (million) of them will have the ingenuity to survive any catastrophe — the cause of science will be advanced in a myriad of ways. Their findings could also provide plenty of background for writers who conceptualise characters for animation movies, so that cockroaches are cast as brave heroes.