And Finally...

Nadezhda used to scuttle around the drab halls of a bureaucratic building in southwestern Russia before she was recruited for an unprecedented experiment in space.

Suddenly, her life of anonymity — just trying to avoid hunger and the thick rubber tread of a boot — was elevated for a higher purpose. She would become a mother, and she would show the world what happens when multiples are conceived in outer space.

When she returned, everyone at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Voronezh, Russia, waited and watched Nadezhda, whose name means "hope," like the lower-than-lab-rat that she was.

Then, the day arrived: 33 cockroach babies were born, presenting unusual mutations. They were larger, ran faster, and even looked different from their brethren bugs on Earth. While the upper shells of the newborn critters are normally clear, Nadezhda's brood was already sporting a dark reddish-brown coat.

"It's like a space horror film in the making, when you think about it," Alex Layendecker, founder of the Astrosexological Research Institute, told Mashable.