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Color in Science: Is My Blood Really Blue?

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You probably learned your basic human anatomy sometime around grade school. Textbooks said your blood was red and a scraped knee on the playground confirmed it. We bleed red because of hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein that carries oxygen throughout the body. Hemoglobin is comprised of iron, which oxidizes as red like rust, causing our blood to be bright red when oxygen rich. So...

Why Are My Blood Veins Blue?


Well, they're not. They're a dirty red. Of course, the darker blood won't be as dark outside of the body because it will oxidize when hitting air, but it still contains waste from cells. Seeing a vein as blue through the skin is because of the layer just below the epidermis and dermis, the two outer layers of skin. Because our skin's "job" is to protect our bodies from the sun, this provides an interference for how light penetrates the skin by allowing only lower frequency light through, and color is light bounced off of an object, after all. The wavelengths that do make it through to the veins are high-energy blue.

heart_diagram.gif    

Because of diagrams like this one and medical charts using blue for the contrast of arteries and veins, it has become a common misconception that the blood in veins is blue. Even some of my science teachers have previously said that blood from veins is blue before it hits air... where instantly it's changed to bright red.

Seen under vacuum conditions, this has been disproved.

For more information about blood: Wikipedia Entry on Blood

 

Image from www.kidshealth.org

 
While there are creatures out there with blue blood, humans are not one of them. Horseshoe crabs, skinks, and octopi all have haemocyanins, which are clear before oxidization, and blue after binding oxygen to their copper composition.
 

26 July, 2007
Comments 10
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Showing 1 - 10 of 10 Comments

PureForm
PureForm wrote:
26 Jul, 2007
Imagine how upset the Crips will be

MattyD
MattyD wrote:
26 Jul, 2007
Blood Is Not Red

Arandano
Arandano wrote:
26 Jul, 2007
and the blue princess?

it is because of hemofilia, so that their parents were prime

ruecian
ruecian wrote:
26 Jul, 2007
You might be referring to Cyanosis. I'm not sure whom you're referring to by 'the blue princess.'

greenie
greenie wrote:
14 Aug, 2007
Blueblood

lulusarts…
5 Sep, 2007
I can attest, that when you actually cut a vein out of the body it is not blue, and arteries are not red either. They're all tan-ish. Arterial blood is much brighter than venous though, and there is a condition where your blood can turn chocolate brown called methemoglobinemia (coincidentally, the treatment is methylene blue).

tepi
tepi wrote:
15 Nov, 2007
Octopus blood is blue -- uses copper instead of iron to carry the oxygen molecules!
octopusblood

mistercli…
23 Apr, 2008
I was taught this wrong back in junior high and high school science class. I also thought that pineapples grew on trees, but this too was proved wrong with a trip to Hawaii.

Tawny
Tawny wrote:
21 Mar, 2009
Who knew?!?! Thanks for the post.

bernieg
bernieg wrote:
2 weeks ago
Thanks. Interesting.


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28 Jul, 2007
[...] Color in Science: Is My Blood Really Blue? You probably learned your basic human anatomy sometime around grade school. Textbooks said your blood was red and a scraped knee on the playground confirmed it. We bleed red because of hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein that carries oxygen throughout the body. So… Why Are My Blood Veins Blue? Read more: Color in Science: Is My Blood Really Blue? [...]
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