New Delhi, June 9 -- A recent public debate in India, triggered by a passing remark about unemployed youth and "parasites of society" by India's Chief Justice Surya Kant, brought cockroaches into the national conversation. Young people, disillusioned with the system, responded by creating the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). But few cared to look beyond the stereotype of the cockroach as a common household pest and a "dirty insect".

What is little known, however, is that the "Supreme Nature's Court" has reviewed the cockroach's performance and utility for over 300 million years and repeatedly renewed its license to exist. In fact, not coincidentally, a research team comprising scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) re...