Okay, here's a question...

[vr_trakowski]

Human blood uses iron to transport oxygen molecules.  Oxygen-carrying blood is red--it's oxidized, after a fashion...rusty.  Fine. 

Vulcan blood (I know, work with me here) uses copper to transport oxygen.  Oxygenated copper turns green (or greeny-blue).  So... 

Is unoxygenated Vulcan blood...red? 

Comments

[brandie.livejournal.com]

What color is our (human) blood when it isn't oxygenated? I thought it was still red, just duller.

But if that is the case, I bet Vulcan blood would continue to be greenish-blue, just duller.

I could be speaking out of my rear though. All the wiki's I browsed (I'm bored at work) did not mention oxygenated blood vs. un-oxygenated blood. :/

[anamin.livejournal.com]

Well I think it's blue because Veins are blue, and they carry away from the heart, and arteries are red or vice versa? *looks at wrists*

No, veins carry toward, and arteries away.

[brandie.livejournal.com]

It could be my skin, but my veins are green :O

IMA VULCAN

:)

There's this really big star trek groupie here on campus... I should try to find him. Though, he might be offended... his forte is Klingon. As in his office looks like a bird of prey and he speaks the language fluently.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Well, you could ask him what color a Vulcan's blood is when they're disembowelled in an oxygen-free atmosphere...of course, Klingon blood looks like Pepto-Bismol!

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

I never could remember that...and I was a Bio major for 3.5 years!

[anamin.livejournal.com]

Well, veins are blue so they have no oxygen, logically speaking are headed toward the heart, and since arteries are red, they're carring the oxygen, so they're away because they just got oxygen OR veins go to the lungs. . .the lungs would have to be involved somehow. . .

Here's the wiki on it.

[anamin.livejournal.com]

here's the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veins

[plkphoto.livejournal.com]

Just for the heck of it, since I've taught physiology, let's see if this clears things up a bit:

Veins always head toward the heart, arteries always head away from the heart, regardless of oxygenation. The difference between veins and arteries is the amount/type of pressure they withstand.

Because arteries have blood that's actively pumped from the heart, they have to withstand a high blood pressure and maintain it so that the blood will be forced into the far parts of the body. The veins, on the other hand, are collecting blood that's returning from tissue where it has passed through tiny capillaries, so the pressure is very low as the blood is moved along toward the heart. Thus vein walls are a lot thinner than artery walls and so you can see the blood in veins more easily through your skin. The blueness is just an illusion.

As for the lungs, the blood vessels that leave the heart and head to the lungs are still arteries (pulmonary arteries) because they have high pressure blood straight from the heart, but this blood has low oxygen levels. The blood vessels that return from the lungs to the heart are veins (pulmonary veins), and are low pressure, but high oxygen.

Anyway, feel free to ignore me... :-D

PLK

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was disappointed to find that the blue appearance of human blood is an illusion of sorts. But I'm still curious.