Even brief exposure to highway pollution could cause significant increases in blood pressure, a new study from the University of Washington has found, adding to a growing body of work correlating vehicle exhaust with negative ...
Environment
Dec 1, 2023
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7
President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced it would require the removal of the nation's remaining lead pipes within a decade, preventing an estimated 22 million people from potential exposure to the toxic ...
Environment
Nov 30, 2023
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13
This past summer, staff at the Louisville Zoo noticed their three-year-old African elephant, Fitz, was less active than usual. A blood test confirmed that he had elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), which can cause ...
Veterinary medicine
Nov 30, 2023
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7
As many companies aim to build diverse workforces, candidates from historically marginalized communities continue to report unfair recruitment practices and limited opportunities. Building an equitable organization starts ...
Social Sciences
Nov 29, 2023
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Blood tests are a common, yet often painful, step in health care. But what if we could skip the needles altogether? Saliva and blood contain many of the same biomarkers, and collecting spit is as simple as drooling into a ...
Biochemistry
Nov 29, 2023
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1
Blood vessels are responsible for the appropriate and efficient delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the whole body. To do so, they must grow and branch to reach every cell in a process called angiogenesis. The precise regulation ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 29, 2023
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1
Nanodiamonds are 2–8 nm carbon nanoparticles, which can be easily functionalized with various chemical groups like carboxylic groups or drugs. Previous research has shown that actively dividing cells are more likely to ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 29, 2023
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36
A large amount of the heavy automobile pollution from Copenhagen's Bispeengbuen thoroughfare goes straight into people's homes, according to a study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. A sensor developed by one ...
Environment
Nov 27, 2023
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12
Forensic science has captured the public imagination by storm, as the profusion of "true crime" media in the last decade or so suggests. By now, most of us know that evidence left at a crime scene, such as blood, can often ...
Soft Matter
Nov 21, 2023
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65
A team of engineers and public health experts from the University of South Florida is helping Toamasina, Madagascar, residents reduce their exposure to lead—a major global environmental pollutant that causes more than 1 ...
Environment
Nov 16, 2023
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28
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells.
In vertebrates, it is composed of blood cells suspended in a liquid called blood plasma. Plasma, which comprises 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (90% by volume), and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), platelets and blood cells themselves. The blood cells present in blood are mainly red blood cells (also called RBCs or erythrocytes) and white blood cells, including leukocytes and platelets. The most abundant cells in vertebrate blood are red blood cells. These contain hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein, which facilitates transportation of oxygen by reversibly binding to this respiratory gas and greatly increasing its solubility in blood. In contrast, carbon dioxide is almost entirely transported extracellularly dissolved in plasma as bicarbonate ion.
Vertebrate blood is bright-red when its hemoglobin is oxygenated. Some animals, such as crustaceans and mollusks, use hemocyanin to carry oxygen, instead of hemoglobin. Insects and some molluscs use a fluid called hemolymph instead of blood, the difference being that hemolymph is not contained in a closed circulatory system. In most insects, this "blood" does not contain oxygen-carrying molecules such as hemoglobin because their bodies are small enough for their tracheal system to suffice for supplying oxygen.
Jawed vertebrates have an adaptive immune system, based largely on white blood cells. White blood cells help to resist infections and parasites. Platelets are important in the clotting of blood. Arthropods, using hemolymph, have hemocytes as part of their immune system.
Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart. In animals having lungs, arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to the tissues of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism produced by cells, from the tissues to the lungs to be exhaled.
Medical terms related to blood often begin with hemo- or hemato- (also spelled haemo- and haemato-) from the Ancient Greek word αἶμα (haima) for "blood". In terms of anatomy and histology, blood is considered a specialized form of connective tissue, given its origin in the bones and the presence of potential molecular fibers in the form of fibrinogen.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
