Nature

A living fossil's blue blood is used to test the safety of every vaccine you've had

Horseshoe crab blood is blue because it carries oxygen with copper-based hemocyanin instead of iron-based hemoglobin. Its blood cells also clot instantly around bacterial toxins, a reaction researchers turned into the LAL test — still the standard method pharmaceutical companies use to check vaccines and medical equipment for contamination.

Frederik B. Bang, A Bacterial Disease of Limulus polyphemus — Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1956

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