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26 September 2018

Fun facts about blood.

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We're always interested to find out some fun facts about blood. How many of these did you know?

1. The word "blood" appears at least once in every play by Shakespeare. 

William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare.

2. Not every animal has red blood. Spiders, lobsters and snails have blue blood due to the presence of the protein haemocyanin which contains copper.

Lobster on rock.
Blue blooded lobster.

3. The amount of blood in a pregnant woman's body will have increased by 50% by the 20th week of pregnancy. 

Pregnant woman holds baby bump.
Blood increases during pregnancy.

4. Our blood contains around 0.2 milligrams of gold.

Stack of gold bars.
Who would have thought our blood contains gold.

5. Some Japanese people believe that blood type is an indicator of a person’s personality. There are even novelty goods themed after blood types.

Packets of Japanese shower gel with blood groups advertised on packaging.
Goods sold by blood group in Japan.

6. Nothing is left to chance for the President of the United States. The Presidential car stores the President's blood type in the boot of the car just in case of emergencies.  

The United States presidential state car.
Presidential car contains blood.

7. Research has shown that mosquitoes prefer blood type O. It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to totally drain a human of blood.

Mosquito.
Mosquitoes prefer the O blood groups.

8. Larger animals have slower heart rates than smaller animals. This means that the blood in their body takes longer to circulate around. For example, a blue whale’s heart only beats 5 times per minute while humans beat closer to 75 per minute.

A blue whale swimming under water.
It takes longer for blood to circulate round larger animals.

9. There has been an example of blood becoming a dark green colour. Surgeons operating on a 42-year-old Canadian man got a shock when they discovered dark green blood coursing through his arteries, like Star Trek‘s Mr Spock. It's thought this was caused by of a type of migraine medication.

Mr Spock from the television series Star Trek.
Mr Spock had green blood.

10. Ancient Egyptians believed that wine was the blood of people who dared to battle against Gods. The reason why they believed this is that drinking wine temporarily made people crazy and drove them out of their senses. This is precisely why ancient Egyptians avoided drinking wine.

Ancient Egyptian image.
Ancient Egyptians avoided drinking wine due to its resemblance to blood.

Current blood stock levels across Scotland Thursday 05 December

We aim to retain 6 days of stocks at any time in order to meet the requirements of patients in Scotland.

Learn more about blood types