Saturday, December 5, 2009
Blood is not merely a means of transportation, it performs other important functions. Flowing through the body’s vessels, the blood in the lungs and intestines comes into close contact with the environment. Both the lungs and especially the intestines are the ‘dirtiest’ places in the organism. It is no wonder that in these sites bacteria [...]
Thursday, December 3, 2009
It is very convenient to transport haemoglobin in a special container inside the erythrocytes, but, as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The erythrocyte, being a living cell, does itself consume a great deal of oxygen. Nature hates wastefulness and had to think hard of a way of cutting down this unnecessary [...]
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The main function of the blood is transportation. It carries warmth all over the body, takes nutrients from the intestine and oxygen from the lungs and delivers them where necessary.
In lower animals, oxygen and all the other essential substances are merely dissolved in the fluid which circulates throughout their bodies. Higher animals evolved a special [...]
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The shores of our own ‘personal ocean’ are washed by waves, which are not blue but scarlet. However, the venous blood saturated with carbon dioxide and other products of metabolism has a bluish tint, a fact which seems to have been known as early as the 11th century.
At any rate, the highest nobility, the favourites [...]