Top 10 blood facts

Blue. Both squids and octopuses have blue blood. They use an oxygen-carrying molecule in their blood called hemocyanin that contains copper. In cold conditions with low oxygen pressure, hemocyanin oxygen transportation is more efficient than haemoglobin oxygen transportation.

Rhesus Macaque. "Rh" stands for "Rhesus". Due to its relatively easy upkeep in captivity and anatomical closeness to humans, rhesuses have been used extensively in medical research.

0. Type O blood can be given to anyone, as it lacks both anti-A and anti-B antibodies.

AB- AB is the rarest of all AB0 types, and Rh- is always less common than Rh+. In Western Europe, only 1% of the population has AB-. In the Eastern Asia Rh- is very rare: in Japan, only 0,05% of the population has AB-.

Fibrinogen. In order to reduce the loss of blood and facilitate the recovery of the blood vessel at the site of the injury, a blood clot is formed. It is made up of platelets and dissolved plasma protein-fibrogen. By the substance released by the blood-thrombin plate, fibrogen changes into fibrin, which creates a dense network at the site of injury.

Oval biconcave disks. In humans, mature red blood cells are flexible and oval biconcave discs. They lack a cell nucleus and most organelles, in order to accommodate maximum space for hemoglobin; they can be viewed as sacks of hemoglobin, with a plasma membrane as the sack. Approximately 2.4 million new erythrocytes are produced per second in human adults.

Copper. Lobsters,octopus, snails, spiders and other creepy-crawlies have blood that uses copper for oxygen transport. This is called Hemocyanin. Oxygenation causes a color change between the colorless Cu deoxygenated form and the blue Cu oxygenated form. Vertebrates like humans , have iron based blood.

Erythrocytes. Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells (erythrocytes). It carries oxygen from the respiratory organs (lungs or gills) to the rest of the body.

In Chicago. In 1937 Bernard Fantus, director of therapeutics at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, established the one of the first hospital blood bank in the United States. In creating a hospital laboratory that preserved, refrigerated and stored donor blood, Fantus originated the term "blood bank".

90%. Plasma, a component of blood, is an aqueous solution.