this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] mononomi@feddit.nl 58 points 1 month ago (4 children)

And then humans came along to mess with em

human in protective clothing harvesting horseshoe crab blood in a lab

[–] Tja@programming.dev 32 points 1 month ago

Stupid life-saving copper based blood...

[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I find it hard to understand, what special thing the blood has, that is not synthetically manufacturable. With most foodstuff companies trying to synthetically manufacture as much of the food as they can, what makes this "Near Threatened" animal, so important to harvest?

[–] Dave2@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I googled it for you, there is LAL which is a blood clotting agent (that exists only in the blood of horseshoe crabs) that reacts with the bacterial capsule which makes it important for vaccine safety tests. Alternatives do exist but ya know, money is more important to corporations than some animal's life.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Alternatives do exist but ya know, money is more important

What are the alternatives, and how can we reduce their costs to match that of horseshoe crab blood?

[–] Dave2@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have done some more googling (I can't stress this enough, I am just googling)

The top alternatives are rFC (genetically modified cells produce the required enzyme) and MAT (human monocytes do the detection) They're more costly, picking ready fruit is easier than growing an orchard.

Also I should mention how new the alternatives are, they're just (2018 is just now for me lol) getting their approvals and regulations so given time LAL will be replaced.

given time LAL will be replaced

That sounds encouraging!

[–] mayo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago
[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So they'll use alternatives once the crabs go extinct.
Well... 😶

[–] KellysNokia@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

It's like a more realistic representation of what Neo would see when he wakes from the Matrix

[–] whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Science abhors a vacuum but it fucking loves a crab

[–] Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

Nature abhors a vaccuum

[–] apex32@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Nice doggie!

Nice doggie!

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

Heckin sea roomba

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

One of the best things I got to do as a kid was go down to horseshoe crab time at the shore at pet them and hear a science human talk about their fancy blood. The fancy blood of the horseshoe crabs, not the science human's blood.

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yet some of them still managed to evolve into spiders...

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago

They were bored one afternoon

[–] kindenough@kbin.earth 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fascinating creatures. TIL they are more closely related to arachnids than crabs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

How close are they to horseshoes?

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

Practically identical.

[–] kindenough@kbin.earth 3 points 1 month ago

Hihi...asking the most important questions.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

How about hand grenades?

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Lazy bastards

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago
[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

all extant species (except hu-men) be like: evolve? whats that. just livin out here.