Spock had green blood, right? Is that possible?
Yes, Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek series had green blood. And yes, it's possible.
First off, why is our blood red? Did you ever notice how dried blood looks a lot like rust? If not, then you've probably haven't spent enough time around dried blood, which is a good thing. But the two look very similar, and there's a reason: they both have oxygen tied into iron.
Hot blooded! Check it and see!
Everyone knows we need oxygen to survive. But why? For the same reason that fire needs oxygen; because it burns real nice and hot. Actually, it allows other things to burn, but let's not split embers here. Suffice to say that oxygen allows combustion. This is what our cells do to make energy. They use oxygen to turn nutrients and similar stuff into energy like a campfire turns logs into energy. This is the energy we need to get out of bed, make coffee, and sit around for a few hours (or so my unemployed life goes).
All them cells need oxygen, but they can't exactly run up to the lungs and grab a few handfulls whenver they want. If they did, we'd look like the inside of a lava lamp. Although that would be truly groovy, it would also be truly painful. So the human body uses something to run oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body like a O2 FedEx agent. Let's see ... what moves all over the body ... reaches every part of us except nails and hair ... got to move quickly so the cells don't get hungry ....
That's why you need more iron in your diet
Yes, it's the circulatory system and our precious blood. But oxygen can be picky. It won't get carried by just anything. There's a few elements that oxygen goes weak-need for, and one of them is iron. Sweet, innocent iron is the subject of oxygen's lust. Big O just can't get enough of little ol' Fe (that's the chemical symbol for iron; don't you feel smart now that you know that?).
So our bodies use iron in our blood to carry oxygen to our cells so we don't die of exhaustion. In the outside world, when iron and air (e.g. oxygen) mix, you get rust. In a way, our blood is full of rust. That's why it has that wonderful, deep scarlet color.
What does this have to do with green blood? Very good! You've probably tried to think of what could combine with oxygen to make a greenish color. If you didn't, don't worry. It's not all that important.
All the colors of the rainbow, minus most of 'em
Remember that oxygen is a bit snobby. Besides iron, oxygen goes well with copper and magnesium. Ever clean some old copper pot that had this green crap all over it? That oxidation; oxygen combining with another element. So Spock's blood could use copper to carry oxygen to his hungry Vulcan cells, which would make his blood dark green. I guess they give each other green hearts for Valentine's Day.
What other blood colors can their be? Copper can also appear blue, but I'm not sure why. There's some crustaceans deep in the ocean here on Earth who have blue copper blood, so it's true. Magnesium would make blood a dark purple.
And that's all that I know of. If someone out there has another element that oxygen is randy for, and knows what the color would be, then please send an email and learn me a bit.
Read this before you start yelling
By the by, let me head off a few email rants ... our veins are blue, not the blood in them. Or else we'd see Jason and Freddie all covered in blue and red. Also, human blood does have a bunch of elements in it, including magnesium and copper. I never said it was copper-free; I just said that the iron that carried oxygen in our blood makes that blood red. So back off.
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